Buckner's Extravaganza!

or, if you don't know, now you know

Buckner’s Extravaganza is September 21st! It takes place on our facebook page and runs for a full week. This is our biggest rescue fundraiser of the year. All funds will go to support Management’s former rescue, R&R Boxer Rescue. We have several artists participating this year, besides myself and we have some donations from long time followers. I will post the auction album the night before and then come the 21st, you can start bidding via the comments. Easy peasy!

This fundraiser is named after my boy Buckner. My very first boxer dog and a big reason why I love giving back to the breed. But maybe you want to hear the full story of how 5149 & 1/2 Art became involved with raising money for dog rescues. So here we go….

Back in 2013, while I was a 911 dispatcher, I opened my very first etsy shop. It consisted of mostly paintings and custom photo boxes where I would flame pictures of peoples dogs onto lids of boxes they would use for memorials.

One of my ongoing issues between the shop and social media was people frequently asking how big my artwork was. I would put the size in the descriptions but still, I would get a comment or a message about the size. So one day my little pocket boxer Mookie jumps up on the couch while I am trying to take a picture of my latest painting in the good light. I took a picture of her next to the painting because she was just sitting there so cute. Well I posted that picture. Because lets face it, no dog owner needs an excuse to share a pic of their dog. I immediately got way more engagement/likes/comments etc about that painting and about my boxer. My page following jumped. And most importantly, no one asked how big the painting was. It sold within a couple hours of posting.

I realized this combo was perfect. My dogs could show the size of the painting and I could share pictures of my cute boxers. Win win I figure.

Now lets go back to Mookie for a second. Mookie was my first rescue (Buckner was purchased on a whim from a pet store. Before you yell at me this was late 2006 and I didn’t know any better). Mookie came to us a year after Buckner via NorCal Boxer Rescue (see how quickly I learned “adopt, don’t shop”). That was such a positive experience working with NCBR that time that I was all in for volunteering with them. I wanted to foster initially, but between Mookie being very dog selective and my work schedule on midnights/swings, I opted to help with transportation. I also figured I could donate a portion of my etsy sales each month to rescue.

That would have been a good system if I was getting good sales lol but the beginning was super slow. My next thought was offering to do artwork for big donors. Something along the lines of if you donate over a certain amount, I would do a custom wooden box for you. That also would have worked if one, I had rescues actually responding to my requests to help them. And two, it was A LOT of work for me to do for free essentially.

Around this time, Hobby Lobby started selling these tall resin boxer statues.

I was purchasing them every week. I painted a couple up and decided I would auction them on my facebook page with all the funds going to rescue. All I needed was a rescue to return my email. That rescue ended up being Legacy Boxer Rescue out of Texas. The first two statues I auctioned went for $200 and $250 respectively. I remember very clearly thinking how huge that amount seemed (to put it in perspective, I have done fundraisers since that have raised $5000 with one statue). But thanks to LBR saying yes, I had my first successful fundraiser for rescue. And my page following just kept growing from there.

I decided that 5149 & 1/2 Art had to be more than just me selling my artwork. It had to include giving back to boxer rescues. It took a few years to get more and more rescues on board letting me help. As word spread about me being the boxer artist, I had more rescues contacting me to work together.

I started aiming for a fundraiser per month, with September being set aside to celebrate Buckner’s birthday. I would release a bunch of cool, new boxer art that month in my shop and all that money was set aside to get the statues and everything for the rescue fundraisers. At some point, people started to send me statues to use for fundraising. Either that they came across in antique shops or some from their personal collection. Sharon, the founder of Legacy Boxer Rescue, donated a huge collection of pieces. I no longer needed to do my boxer art drop in September.

I started trying to recruit artists to join me in my fundraising efforts. By the end of Covid, Buckner’s Extravaganza had evolved to include numerous artists. The fundraiser brings in on average $3000 to the rescue supported. I have tried to choose different rescues each time, but I will openly admit that I do come back to R&R Boxer Rescue frequently because I know the people involved and love what they do. I also happen to have a very beautiful senior rescue from them that you all know as Management or Betsey (my next article will actually feature more information about R&R so you can hear first hand about the rescue I love to support).

That reminds me, when I started putting the dogs in my painting pictures, I had to come up with a cute name for the dogs. And since they were literally telling me what to do all day, Management was a given. Mookie was initially known as the VP of Shipping and featured heavily in pictures of orders packaged up. Buckner was so damn photogenic he ended up being the face of the business. When Buckner passed from DM, Mookie was promoted and since then, I haven’t had two boxers at the same time. Because….

In 2019, we “hired” The Intern. Aka my son.

Now here I am, 2025. We have gone over $100k raised for rescues since starting over a decade ago. I am a bit nervous about this years event because my following is way, way low since restarting the social media pages. My first page was over 2600 people and today I am sitting at 156. So if you want to help this fundraiser before it even starts, please share the facebook page and encourage your dog loving friends to join us.

Btw the Intern is a very happy little boy, who adores dogs (he wants a '“little Betsey” aka a puppy or small dog he can hold, from Santa). I appreciate all you that have been checking in to see how homeschooling has been going. He is loving it and I am very happy (albeit tired). Our fundraisers support boxers. And sales in the shop support my ability to stay home and raise my autistic son. I appreciate each and every one of you for your support. Join us for Buckner’s Extravaganza on September 21st!