PRESS BOOK
Gimme Shelter Animal Rescue is 501(c)(3) a foster-based animal rescue organization in the Hamptons, NY. Founded in December 2011 by Michelle Neufeld Montak, Gimme Shelter’s mission is to rescue homeless animals who are on death row in high-kill facilities across the country. Director Michelle Neufeld Montak has built her rescue on the foundation that every single dog that she rescues and places in an adoptive home is healthy and matched with a forever home that will love and cherish them for the remainder of their lives.
Since Gimme Shelter’s inception, over 850 dogs have been rescued and successfully adopted into loving homes. Each and every dog that is rescued gets full medical care including spaying/neutering, vaccinations and they are microchipped prior to adoption. The unique foster program is the nucleus of the organization. Michelle has built a dedicated network of about 25 foster families who care for the dogs without an actual facility. The foster program also allows the foster family to understand the personality and needs for each dog so that it is adopted by a family where each dog can thrive.
Gimme Shelter hosts an annual benefit each summer at the beautiful Southampton estate of Chuck and Ellen Scarborough. This event is the main fundraiser for the rescue. The event features dogs for adoption, live music, delicious hors d’oeuvres and cocktails, and an auction with high-profile items. The benefit each year has grown to raise several hundred thousand dollars to support the rescue. Notable attendees at the benefit have included: Beth Stern, Chris & Cristina Cuomo, Dylan Lauren, Georgina Bloomberg, Bill Persky and Loudon Wainwright.
Gimme Shelter has achieved quite a bit in its 4 short years, but Montak’s goal is to raise enough funds to open a facility and be able to rescue more animals. “Saving one dog won’t change the world…but surely the world will change for that one dog.”
FACT SHEET Name of Organization: Type of Organization:
Gimme Shelter Animal Rescue Inc. Registered 501c3 nonprofit organization * All donations are tax deductible
Address: Phone:
P.O. BOX 578, Sagaponack, NY 11962 631-903-9215
Website: Email:
www.gimmeshelteranimalrescue.org info@gimmeshelteranimalrescue.org
Facebook: Twitter: Instagram:
@GimmeShelterAnimalRescue @GimmeShelterAR @GimmeShelterAnimalRescue
Mission:
Gimme Shelter Animal Rescue’s mission is to rescue animals who are on death row in high-kill facilities across the country. The rescue’s goal is to save as many precious animals as possible. In order to obtain that goal, each animal is spayed or neutered, provided with necessary medical care as needed and placed in a loving forever home through the very successful adoption program.
Founder & Director:
Michelle Neufeld Montak
Founded:
December 2011
Animals Rescued:
850 since inception
Board of Directors:
Michelle Neufeld Montak, Ellen Scarborough & Deborah Sonnenberg
Notable Adopters:
Chuck & Ellen Scarborough, Chris & Cristina Cuomo, Marcy & Michael Warren, Linda & Ben Lambert, Bill Persky & Joanna Patton
What Else:
• All dogs rescued by Gimme Shelter stay in private foster homes until adopted. This special foster-based program is truly unique and allows the rescue to both assess the personality and the needs of each individual animal when searching for a forever home. • Each dog rescued by Gimme Shelter receives full medical treatment and is also spayed/neutered, vaccinated and microchipped prior to adoption. • Gimme Shelter’s annual summer benefit is held at the Southampton estate of Ellen and Chuck Scarborough to raise funds to continue their lifesaving mission. • Voted Best Rescue by Dan’s Papers 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
Michelle Neufeld Montak Founder and Director Michelle Neufeld Montak is the founder and director of Gimme Shelter Animal Rescue, also known as GSAR, a 501©(3) nonprofit organization based out of Sagaponack, New York. GSAR’s mission is to rescue animals who are on death row in high kill facilities across the country, an organization inspired by Michelle’s lifelong love and appreciation for animals. Prior to founding GSAR, Michelle spent 20-years in the real estate business. Since a young age she has always had a love for animals and a passion for volunteering and has spent countless hours working with organizations such as the Make A Wish Foundation, Humane Society of Toronto and Meals on Wheels. In 2011, Michelle chose to combine her passions for volunteering and for animals, and founded GSAR. Since inception she has rescued more than 850 animals all through foster homes. “I feel honored to give these precious animals, who would otherwise not stand a chance, the wonderful lives that they deserve with people who cherish them,” she says. To her, it’s a privilege that can only be accomplished with the help of the amazing network of foster parents, donors, volunteers and supporters that GSAR has developed through the years. Michelle dedicates her life to saving the lives of animals in honor of her late dog Otis, a very special soul with whom she shared 16 amazing years. Michelle resides in Sagaponack, NY with her husband Edward and their four dogs.
CLICK TO SEE FOOTAGE FROM ANNUAL BENEFIT https://vimeo.com/124873817
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SCARBOROUGH FAIR At Home with Chuck and Ellen Scarborough
BARBARA LASSEN
written by Nicole B. Brewer
“
The accumulation of family experiences over the years makes this house our home,” says venerable NBC anchorman Chuck Scarborough of the Southampton home he shares with this wife of over 20 years, Ellen Ward Scarborough. “I’ve had this house over two decades. When I think what makes it a home it’s the parties with the kids when they were teenagers that we all survived. My daughter Elizabeth had her wedding here. Really, it’s the memories embedded in the walls that make a house a home.” It is within the very walls, now painted white and hung with large paintings and with an aqua accent wall in the dining room, that Chuck has bonded with the property since purchasing the estate in the 1990s, just a few short years before he and Ellen married. Originally built in the 1880s, the home, with its bold black around porches that open to a view of the Meadow Club and St. Andrew’s Dune Church, where his daughter was married in 2012. After the wedding, the bride and groom walked back to the house, accompanied by family and friends, for a reception. “This was one of the original homes on the pond...it was built on locust posts that rotted over time,” explains Chuck. “Over the years owners added porches that became rooms, and more porches that became more rooms and projects was to deal with the instability of the main home, which was sinking and unleveled. “We jacked it up and added a new foundation and basement.” “I oversaw all of the renovations,” Scarborough says during a tour of the property that also includes its original carriage house, as well as an auxiliary garage built in the 1920s, both of which have been extensively renovated. On a perfect summer afternoon the broadcaster, who has over 30 Emmy awards to his credit, proudly
charm of the moment is not lost on the broadcaster, who laughs and says to his wife, “I’m just showing off my window boxes again.” 26 | June/July 2015
“He’ll be a carpenter when he retires,” jokes Ellen, who later declares that he’ll never retire. “He did all the rough carpentry in the master bathroom.” Chuck explains that, over the winter, he “got hooked on renovation shows and just attacked it.” He admits “perhaps I watched a few too many episodes of Property Brothers on lazy Sunday afternoons.” While it takes the pros on TV an episode to do a full renovation, the Scarboroughs were stymied both by contractors’ schedules and by shipping delays that held up the project, still under construction. “The mosaic that “this makeover was a lesson. I’ve hit my limit. I like working with my hands and it was a learning experience.” Now they turn their attention to the interior design, where Ellen’s discerning designer’s eye comes to the forefront. “Ellen’s the designer,” Chuck says proudly, grand piano waits for a tickle of the keys. While neither play, they have had guests and local piano teachers do the honors. gains one’s attention. Two overstuffed aqua sectionals on either side of the room anchor the space, its open design perfect for entertaining. A round banquette in the center of the room separates the spaces while bringing the room together. Windows and doors open to the covered porches and line the room on two sides, allowing plenty of light throughout the day and a view of the pond in the evening. Built-ins showcase part of Ellen’s extensive collection of art and design books while a well-curated selection of tall vases and objects d’art are deftly placed throughout. No space has been overlooked, yet it is neither fussy nor humor and elegant sense of style of its occupants. Ellen’s eponymous antiques shop in Stamford, CT focuses on European pieces collected in her travels, and she’s brought key pieces to her summer home in the Hamptons. “There’s nothing like Paris. It’s so fun. You can go to CONTINUED ON PAGE
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BARBARA LASSEN
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 26 and champagne. You can’t do that in the Midwest. I’m from there—so I would know.” The well-travelled antiques dealer has traveled the world over for chairs and chaises, paintings and porcelain. Yet, when it came to designing her Hamptons home, the Chicago native says, “I’ve spent the last 15 years bringing over containers from France but now mid-century American is fun.” Touches of whimsy are sprinkled throughout the home. In the living room a small bust of a sailor girl sits atop an end table, while in the mudroom artistic
red sectional couch and zebra patterned rug, old photos of Chuck’s parents rest upon a black occasional table with painted playing cards. The outdoor dining table is a mash-up of a base Ellen found in her travels and a top created at V.A.V. Classics, a custom auto body shop in Southampton. Scalamandré’s famous photos of the home at dusk is tucked neatly in a closet waiting for the perfect spot on the wall. Pointing out these elements, lest they be overlooked, Chuck says, “They’re just so fun!” The white-on-white eat-in kitchen boasts a collection of copper pans, hung just so, along the white tiled wall overlooking the bluestone rimmed pool and patio. A towering wrought iron piece might hold fruit on any given day while a collection of white case glass above the wet bar showcases the elegant simplicity of Ellen’s keen aesthetic. In the dining room Ellen shows off green and blue case glasses from the 1960s that would have been the perfect set dressing for Mad Men. Now neatly tucked in a gold trimmed white cabinet, she says that they “use them all the time when entertaining.” A glass-topped, gold-footed table, enlarged from the
Passionate animal lovers, the Scarboroughs have opened their well-dressed home to various charities over the years, including Quogue Wildlife Animal Rescue and Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation as well as the Ellen Hermanson Breast Cancer Foundation. On the day of our tour, as we took note of the blackand-white canvas awnings and the white wicker furniture, deer leapt over the white picket fence by the pool. A seagull quite contentedly perched on the chimney enjoying the view. Waterfowl of all sorts cavorted in the marshy apron of the pond squawking to one another. Perhaps it’s the view or perhaps it’s the feeling of being in a nature preserve that makes the Scarborough residence the 28 | June/July 2015
perfect setting for this year’s Gimme Shelter Animal Rescue summer gala on July 11. Both Chuck and Ellen are honored to host this year’s event, which Chuck says begins with “several days of chaos to get the tent set up before about 250 people come for the party.” Founded in 2011 by Sagaponack resident Michelle Neufeld Montak, Gimme Shelter Animal Rescue has saved over 2,000 dogs to date. The Scarboroughs’ beloved dogs Arthur and Emma were two such rescues, and that makes Neufeld Montak family in their eyes. Now friendly and very well adjusted to family life in the Hamptons and Connecticut, both dogs had big obstacles to overcome. Emma, now about 6 years old, was found on a roadside in South Carolina with two puppies. The puppies were quickly adopted as she lay there in shock. After her rescue, Ellen, heartbroken over the situation, tells a sweet tale of her mothering instincts. “She took two baby rabbits to foster. She had them right on the front porch with her. We took them to the Quogue Wildlife Rescue Center.” Arthur has been a project for the past two years, explains Chuck. With various health concerns it looks like there will be a few more years of TLC ahead, putting thoughts of fostering more dogs on hold for now. “Michelle is such a devoted animal lover,” explains Chuck. “Lots of her saves are from kill shelters in the South. She set up a network of foster homes and vets for each foster family. There is no actual shelter.” The funds raised at the summer gala and over the course of the year pay for transportation and veterinary costs for each dog. Each dog is spayed/neutered, microchipped, vaccinated and given medical attention before being fostered. As there is no brick and mortar shelter the dogs are fostered until permanent homes are found. The vetting process to be a foster parent is quite extensive. The Scarboroughs say that Michelle works continues Ellen, ”She’s right there one at a time with each animal.” Between party planning and a nightly broadcast, the couple enjoys dinners at Silver’s in Southampton (“a mainstay,” declares Ellen), as well as at Pierre’s in Bridgehampton and Robert’s in Water Mill. They make the rounds at various house. Most of all they cherish spending time at Munn Point on Peconic Bay in Southampton. Overlooking Billionaire’s Row on the ocean, Chuck muses of the view, “We drive down Meadow Lane with the dogs. When you walk down the boardwalk it’s just tranquility.” HamptonsBehindtheHedges.com
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HAMPTONS DOG Celebrating the Healthy, Active, Outdoor Lifestyle of East End Dogs and Their Owners
MEET GIMME SHELTER’S MICHELLE MONTAK
THE ENCHANTING
PIT BULL
KIDS AND DOGS PHOTO TIPS
Summer to the Rescue!
Gimme Shelter! SAGAPONACK RESIDENT MICHELLE Neufeld Montak is a One Woman Crusader for Dogs.
PHOTOS BY KRISTIN GRAY
A love of animals came early for Michelle Neufeld Montak. Her mother would tell you that as soon as she could walk she would gravitate towards every animal in her path and let them know how much she loved them. At eleven years old Michelle became the proud owner of her first dog, a sweet collie named Cindy.
Gimme Shelter is a registered 501c3 nonprofit organization. They rely solely on donations and foster homes to keep saving lives. Their big Hamptons fundraiser will be held on July 11th this year (this is one the most fun events of the season!).
PHOTOS BY LIZ STAVRINIDES
To adopt, foster, donate, or buy tickets contact them at www. GimmeShelterAnimalRescue.org; (631) 903-9215.
As Michelle grew up her love of animals only grew stronger. And when she learned how many amazing, healthy animals were killed in shelters across the country, a devastated Michelle knew she had to get involved. And within a short time Gimme Shelter Animal Rescue was born.
Gimme Shelter Animal Rescue (GSAR) saves dogs from local shelters and also from shelters in a very poor, rural county in South Carolina. Many of the shelters there still use barbaric and inhumane gas chambers and heart stick (an injection of sodium pentobarbital that burns like acid) to euthanize animals. She would like to save them all, but when push comes to shove these are the animals Michelle works to save first. GSAR is a foster based rescue, with the animals waiting on the kindness of strangers to open their hearts and homes to house them until a permanent home can be found.
Michelle with GSAR alumn Leo, now a therapy dog
Michelle and Eddie Montak with their rescued dogs.
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