The Haven, a Baldwin County animal rescue organization, will hold its 2026 Tails of Hope Gala on Thursday, October 1, at the Daphne Civic Center, bringing together animal lovers, business leaders and community partners for an evening benefiting homeless pets across the county.
This year’s gala carries an art-gallery theme, with organizers transforming the civic center into an immersive space where adoptable animals and their rescue stories take center stage alongside a live auction, food, music and other fundraising activities. The gallery format is a departure for the event, and organizers hope the visual presentation of each animal’s journey from rescue to recovery will give guests a more personal connection to the work their tickets support.
The event is built around the idea that every rescued animal has a story worth telling, and every dollar raised helps fund the next chapter of that work. From the moment guests arrive, they move through displays that pair photographs and artwork with the stories of animals the organization has taken in, treated and placed in homes across Baldwin County and beyond.
Entertainment for the evening will be provided by Mr. Big & The Rhythm Sisters, a band known for high-energy jazz, R&B and audience interaction that has performed at previous Haven fundraisers. The group’s return gives longtime gala attendees a familiar soundtrack for the night, and organizers count the band’s crowd-pleasing style among the event’s draws.
Cherish Lombard and Glenn “Qtip” Johnson of Cumulus Media, both longtime supporters of the organization, will return as emcees for the gala. The two have guided the program in past years, and their involvement ties the event to the Gulf Coast media audience that has followed The Haven’s work for years.
Two decades of rescue work in Baldwin County
The Haven has operated as a lifesaving animal welfare organization in Baldwin County since 2000, working to reduce the population of homeless pets through medical care, vaccination clinics and spay-and-neuter services. Over more than two decades, the organization has grown from a small volunteer effort into one of the county’s most recognized animal welfare groups, with a network of foster homes, volunteers and community partners supporting its programs.
In 2025 alone, the organization reported providing $63,112 in medical care, administering 1,898 vaccines and performing 473 spay and neuter surgeries for animals in its care. Those numbers represent the daily workload behind the gala’s mission: animals arriving injured, sick or neglected, and a staff and volunteer team that treats, vaccinates and prepares each one for adoption.
The spay-and-neuter work carries particular weight in the organization’s mission. Every surgery performed reduces the number of unplanned litters that might otherwise end up homeless, which is why the gala’s proceeds are tied so directly to the program. Vaccination clinics serve a similar preventive role, protecting animals in the organization’s care and supporting public health in the communities where adopters live.
Organizers say proceeds from the Tails of Hope Gala go directly toward funding those kinds of programs, along with adoption efforts that place rescued animals into permanent homes. Ticket sales, sponsorships, donations and auction proceeds all factor into the event’s fundraising total, and the gala has become the organization’s signature fundraising night of the year.
The Daphne Civic Center, the gala’s home for the evening, is Baldwin County’s principal venue for large community events, and its eastern-shore location puts the gala within easy reach of supporters from Daphne, Fairhope, Spanish Fort, Foley, Gulf Shores and Mobile. Attendees typically include a cross-section of the county’s business community alongside the volunteers and adopters who make the organization’s work possible.
Sponsorships and the live auction
Business sponsorships are open now and offer visibility before, during and after the gala, including on printed event materials. Sponsors at various levels are recognized across the event’s promotions, and organizers say the sponsorship packages give local businesses a way to align themselves with a cause that resonates across the county.
Businesses and individuals interested in becoming sponsors must confirm by August 15, 2026, to be included in that printed recognition. The deadline matters for sponsors who want their names in the printed programs and materials that circulate before and during the event itself.
The Haven is also accepting donated items for the evening’s live auction, which organizers describe as one of the most anticipated parts of the gala and a chance for local businesses to gain exposure to an engaged crowd of bidders. Past auctions have drawn spirited competition, and auction donations from Gulf Coast businesses remain a tradition of the event, giving donors a public thank-you in front of the county’s civic and business leaders.
What the money funds
For an organization like The Haven, a single successful gala can underwrite months of operations. Medical care for rescued animals is often the largest expense, particularly for animals arriving with injuries or illnesses that require surgery, extended treatment or specialist referrals. The $63,112 in medical care reported for 2025 illustrates the scale of that need, and every auction paddle raised in October converts directly into treatment for the next animals through the door.
The gala also funds the quieter parts of the mission: the foster-home network that houses animals while they heal, the volunteer coordination that keeps clinics running, and the adoption events that introduce rescued animals to families. Organizers note that many of the animals featured in the art-gallery displays began in circumstances, from abandonment to injury, that made adoption unlikely without the organization’s intervention.
Baldwin County’s rapid growth has added urgency to that work. As new neighborhoods spread across the county, so do reports of stray and abandoned animals, and the population of pets in need has grown alongside the human population. Organizations like The Haven operate in that gap, and community fundraising has remained the backbone of their capacity to respond.
How to take part
Residents interested in attending, sponsoring, donating or volunteering can contact The Haven directly for ticket and sponsorship details as the October 1 date approaches. Tickets typically move quickly as the date nears, and organizers encourage tables of friends, families and businesses to reserve early.
Volunteer opportunities extend beyond the gala night itself, from event setup and auction staging to year-round roles in foster care, clinic support and adoption events. For many supporters, the gala doubles as a reunion of the volunteer community that sustains the organization between fundraisers.
The art-gallery theme, organizers say, was chosen to reflect the heart of the event: every animal’s rescue is a story, and the evening exists to make sure those stories have a next chapter. With the music of Mr. Big & The Rhythm Sisters, the return of Lombard and Johnson as emcees, and the auction at center stage, the 2026 Tails of Hope Gala aims to build on the organization’s 25-year record of turning an evening in Daphne into a year of care for Baldwin County’s homeless pets.
The Haven’s longevity is itself a measure of community support. Founded in 2000, the organization has weathered economic downturns, hurricanes and the disruptions of recent years while continuing to operate its medical, vaccination and spay-and-neuter programs. Annual events like the Tails of Hope Gala have anchored that persistence, giving the organization a reliable fundraising foundation and giving supporters an annual touchpoint with the mission.
Organizers describe the gala as both a fundraiser and a celebration, a night when the people who foster, adopt, donate and volunteer can see the results of their work gathered in one room. The adoptable animals and rescue stories at the center of the art-gallery theme put faces and names to the numbers, and for many attendees, the most memorable moments come from meeting the animals their previous years’ donations helped save.
With the sponsor deadline of August 15, 2026 approaching, the organization’s focus now turns to finalizing the printed recognition, assembling auction items and completing the gallery displays that will line the civic center floor. Guests can expect the usual blend of dinner, music and bidding, all in service of the animals waiting on the next home.
The gala’s timing on a Thursday evening in early October places it squarely in Baldwin County’s fall event season, when civic calendars fill with fundraisers and the summer heat eases enough for well-attended evening gatherings. That slot has historically worked in the event’s favor, drawing supporters who split their fall giving across the county’s many causes but prioritize an organization whose work touches so many households.
Animal welfare causes tend to draw an unusually broad base of support, and The Haven’s events reflect that. Attendees range from families who adopted their pets through the organization to business owners who sponsor the gala year after year, and the live auction often features bidding wars between tables of longtime friends. That mix of philanthropy and community is what organizers aim to capture with the art-gallery theme.
The organization’s leadership has consistently framed events like this one as investments with measurable returns: every vaccine administered reduces disease risk in the county’s animal population, every spay-and-neuter surgery prevents litters that would strain shelters, and every adoption frees capacity for the next rescue. The gala’s proceeds feed directly into those metrics, which is why organizers publicize the previous year’s numbers as the new fundraising year begins.
As the October 1 date approaches, updates on tickets, sponsors and auction items will be available through The Haven, and organizers say they look forward to welcoming both returning supporters and first-time guests to the Daphne Civic Center for an evening built around the animals at the heart of the mission.