Be inspired: Newlyweds use their marriage to save homeless animals!
- National Football League player Logan Ryan and his wife decided to raise funds for an animal rescue centre.
- They requested their guests to give these donations instead of gifts for the couple.
- The funds given by them helped in covering medical expenses and other medical requirements for the animals at the shelter.
FollowA couple of animal lovers let the wedding gifts go, in return for donations to an animal welfare organisation.
Tennessee Titans star cornerback Logan Ryan and his lady love - previous Rutgers softball player Ashley Bragg - asked their guests at their wedding in St. Lucia prior this year to donate to a neighbourhood animal rescue centre instead of gifts, something completely out of the box.
However, there was a change in plans once they reached the wedding destination.
The couple, were in the midst of their shoot on the streets when a dog formed a fondness towards them and started following them around.
"When we got to St. Lucia we noticed on our drive all the stray dogs and cats on the street," Bragg Ryan told ABC News.
The couple were in the midst of their shoot on the streets when a dog formed a fondness towards them and started following them around.
"The dog was following us, and I was just worried about Ashley's dress because it was so expensive. It was Ashley who welcomed it, petting this dog."
Being the animal lovers that they are, they soon connected closely with the pooch and decided to do something to help the dog as well as the other strays and abandoned animals. This was when they came across the Help Animal Welfare, helpAWS.
Friends and family of the couple had been asking them about what they would like to receive as wedding gifts. In the beginning, Ryan and Bragg requested them to donate to a local animal shelter, but once they heard about HelpAWS, they asked them to fund this organisation instead.
"With the money, the Ryans raised we were able to cover most of the pooch’s medical expenses, and we were also able to spay and neuter 11 cats we have in our care," Charlene Penney, founder of HelpAWS, told HuffPost.
On a personal level, the couple has started Ryan’s Monthly Rescue, a web-based social networking effort that conveys messages to rescue homeless dogs, pit bulls in particular, all over the nation.
