MIDLAND, Texas — On this day, three years ago, volunteers gathered in a warehouse for a single cause.
"We were just a team of volunteers who had gotten a vet out of Dallas to come for the weekend and we just all pitched in and made it happen," said Karen Patterson, Executive Director.
These people came together with one common goal in mind: to help the local pets in West Texas. Years later Fix West Texas may be in a different place, but it's still a place started by the people for the people.
"One of the things that I feel is so special about Fix West Texas is that we were truly built by the everyday Joe, so we started off with 5 dollar donations, 10 dollar donations, and that has gotten us to where we are," said Patterson.
"We aren't built on a big huge donation or a huge grant; we have been lucky and got some but by and large a majority of our donations has come from the community right here, the everyday person. So we can't thank our community enough for embracing us and helping us build this," Patterson said.
Since opening, FWT has made enormous strides by offering low cost services to pet owners in need.
"It's super exciting to look back and see the progress. The first year we did about 3,000 surgeries, the second year about 6,700 and the third year which was last year we did 8,000," she said.
"So we know we have steadily increased our capacity but we have also branched out into a lot of different areas with our pet pantry, just really helping to try to serve the community and the pet owners too," said Patterson.
This one stop shop has truly become a clinic for the community.
"I think that all of us that have worked up here and volunteer. We live and breathe this. So everywhere we go we're trying to spread the message that we're here to help, we can definitely see our impact and we're just excited to be here," Patterson said.