Karyn’s Corner

Tucson Greyhound Park, located in the one-square mile town of South Tucson, hosted 12 races a night with eight dogs per race four to six nights a week, on an oval dirt track no matter the weather.

With that many races and that many dogs running, the retiring of the hounds was a steady pace.

In 2012, Pima County had two existing adoption groups plus a third that was closing its doors when SA Greys came on the scene.

The struggle to find more forever homes for the park’s racing greyhounds was constant and the founders of SA Greys saw a need and wanted to fill it.

As the wheels started turning, Phyllis Schaefer became the interim president. First steps included being incorporated, a requirement to be a 501(c)(3) and finding a kennel to house the vast number of dogs soon to be in our care. You all know Phyllis as she creates those fabulous greyhound quilts for our fundraising raffles.

Fun fact: As the founders were tossing around ideas for names, someone thought of GAGA — Greyhound Adoption of Greater Arizona. Can you imagine how much fun we would’ve had marketing GAGA?

Diana Hansen proposed SAGA because every greyhound has a story. However, there was already a SAGA or Southern Alberta Greyhound Adoption in Canada and that group felt that another SAGA would be a conflict so that’s how our nickname became SA Greys.

The first Board members were: President John Clark, Vice President Susan Fox, Secretary Cynthia David, Treasurer Anne-Marie King, Volunteer Director Linda Begaga, Communications Director Kristine Dorame, Operations Director Cindy Hall, Outreach Director Don Blascak, Funding & Development Director Lori Riegel, Board Members at large Gordon Bennett and Dawn Heinemann and Advisory Board Chair Mary Freeman.

Coordinators: Foster Coordinator Cheryl Bennett, Adoption Coordinator Phyllis Schaefer and Kennel Manager Liz Troudt.

Also included were a cast of dozens of enthusiastic volunteers.

Joan and Paul Athey and Dale Peterson wrote the bylaws. Mark Muktoyuh created the logo. Geoff Beck was the IT guy who designed the website. Barbara Beck, a professional videographer, created this video when SA Greys made their debut at the Arizona Animal Fair held at Reid Park.

Gabi (pictured) was the first hound to come into our care.

The dogs were initially kenneled at Buhrke’s Pet Resort in Marana where volunteers cared for them by bathing, providing food and water, turnout, playtime and socialization before going into foster care.

If I failed to mention your initial participation, have any errors or you want to help me walk down memory lane in future installments, please email communications@sagreys.org and I will contact you.