North Beach PAWS makes strides with charity dinner and auction

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, September 30, 2025

On Saturday, North Beach PAWS held their annual charity dinner and auction at Ocean Shores Convention Center.

With this well-known annual event taking place for over 19 years, this year was a successful one. Hundreds of attendees joined together in support of a genuine cause to fund the daily care and adoption of cats and dogs.

This cause includes low-cost and free vaccinations and spaying and neutering of pets, including low-income vouchers to do so, pet retention, and food assistance, which supports the health and longevity of the lives of many animals in need.

Carol Jamroz is the president of North Beach PAWS, and she has consistently played a large part in planning and saving pets’ lives by finding them permanent homes, and through non-profit work.

“Our mission is really to shelter as many homeless and abandoned dogs and cats as we can, to put them in foster homes or in the shelter itself, and to find them permanent homes,” she said. “That’s our primary mission. We also assist law enforcement in cases of cruelty. We provide huge volunteering opportunities for the community.

“We are located just outside Ocean Shores, a retirement community. A lot of people there, surprisingly, are housebound or single, and providing them with volunteer work that is meaningful and gives them purpose is very rewarding. We often hear from our volunteers that North Beach PAWS has been a lifeline for them. I think that’s very important. It is saving the animals. It’s bringing them in, healing them.

“You can watch them progress through a cycle. Some days are tough, but on others the light turns on in their eyes, and you realize that they’re ready to be adopted. They’re ready to move on to the next step. Some take longer than others, but when they are adopted, it is like graduating from school; it’s incredibly rewarding.”

She said they do not receive any federal funding and that North Beach PAWS runs entirely on volunteers. All money raised during the auction will go directly to their non-profit work and save the lives of animals in need.

Using the support of local veterinarians, they have completed over 900 spays and neuters, and have hosted three vaccination clinics. This year over 400 dogs and cats have been adopted, and work has also been done to transfer around 70 long-term residents to other larger shelters in the Seattle area, where adoption may be more likely — all transfers were adopted.

Nanette Sparrow also played a crucial part in ensuring this event fell together smoothly, as the fundraising chair and dog shelter manager.

“We not only throw events like our fundraiser, but we also host low-income vaccination clinics,” she said. “We provide low-income spay-neuter vouchers. We work on educating the public. How to reconnect with a lost pet. We try to do as much outreach as we can based on the questions that are coming into us in the help that we see is needed in the community.

“The collection of the items for the silent auction and live auction are gathered around the year. It’s nonstop, and to have that many high-quality items is quite the process. We do have a team that goes out and gets asked for donations of items and sponsorships. We have a thrift store, so people come and donate their items, and then we sell those items in our thrift store or garage sale on Saturdays, and that is what keeps the lights on and the pets’ fed. That’s our main source of income other than grants and donations.”

The raffle drawing for a Disney trip took place at 7 p.m., followed by opening remarks and then the iconic live auction beginning at 7:15 p.m. until all items had been auctioned off.

The items included a bike and a set of electric scooters, antique home decor, handmade woodworkings, a guitar, and collectors’ value Beatles records, and even a car.

If you’d like to donate or volunteer, you can reach out through their website at https://www.northbeachpaws.org/. Or they are open to accept donations on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Mondays from 1 to 3 p.m.

Benefits of adoption through the North Beach PAWS ensure the animals have been taken care of, spayed/neutered, vaccinated, microchipped and seen by a veterinarian before adoption.