By Susan Shinn Turner

For the Salisbury Post

SALISBURY — Buying fabulous jewelry to help our furry friends — what could be better?

The third annual Pawbrokers Jewelry Party is coming to the Parish Hall of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 131 W. Council St. from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.

Roxanne Blake of Cornelius, owner of Pawbrokers, donates her time and collects and sells donated jewelry — both costume jewelry and fine jewelry. All of the money raised from the show will go to Faithful Friends Animal Sanctuary.

Blake stumbled onto the concept seven years ago. She was fostering animals and had as many as eight at one point.

“I needed to walk away from fostering, but I just had to do something to help animals,” Blake says.

One night, she attended a jewelry party, and the jewelry was expensive. The fundraiser didn’t raise all that much money after all.

“You know,” Blake told a girlfriend, “I could take jewelry from my jewelry box and sell it.”

Blake owned retail stores for 30 years. She also had an extensive collection of Native American jewelry. So two weeks after the first jewelry party, she hosted her own — and raised $2,200.

“I have a huge passion for it,” Blake says. “I love jewelry, and I love animals.”

Since 2010, she’s raised almost $500,000 for animal shelters across the state. She does about 20 shows a year.

For the Salisbury show, she says, she has thousands of necklaces at $5 each. She also has fine jewelry available, with gold and silver being sold by weight.

“It has been a good event for us,” says Nancy Krapf, president of the Faithful Friends board. “I think it’s something the public enjoys. They’re helping animals, and it’s a fun shopping experience.”

Shopper and Faithful Friends supporter Patsy Reynolds agrees. On Monday, she took a bag full of jewelry to donate for future shows.

“The show is a lot of fun,” Reynolds says. “You stroll through and you know that anything you want to give or buy will go to help Faithful Friends.”

The shelter helped her and her husband, Ozzie, find a new dog several years ago.

“They were absolutely wonderful to help us,” she says, “and now we have one of the dearest pets we’ve ever had. I can’t say enough good things about Faithful Friends.”

Krapf says the shelter has an extensive adoption process, with a written application, meet-and-greets with potential owners and pets already in the home, and home visits. Because of this vigilance, she says, “most of our placements are permanent placements.”

Money raised will go toward daily operations, says board member Julie Pinkston.

“It averages $10 a day for food and veterinary care for each rescued animals,” Pinkston says. “We just zip through that money pretty quickly.”

Bethany Fortner and her husband, Don, a former board member, met Blake and her husband several years ago on vacation. They quickly discovered their common love of animals, and the Fortners learned about Blake’s project.

“It was like God put us together in the same place at the same time,” Fortner says. “It is a really unique way to raise money for shelters.”