‘A transformational moment for them’: Ten Lives Club raises $284,000 in honor of Tyler Bass

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — In the span of just a few days, Bills Mafia turned heartbreak into triumph for the Ten Lives Club. Now, people from across the country are donating in droves to this Western New York non-profit.

While some fans chose to be critical of kicker Tyler Bass after he missed the game-tying field goal with less than two minutes left in the game, others began supporting the Ten Lives Club, an organization that has partnered with Bass before. Because Bass wears No. 2 on the field, fans began donating $22 to support him.

“He’s an excellent football player in my opinion. When I heard there was a chance to help and help cats, we are huge cat people at our house, it was a no brainer,” Carly Layfield of St. Catharines, Ontario. said.

The organization is a nonprofit, non-kill cat adoption group that aims to find cats their fur-ever home. When you walk into their Blasdell adoption center, Bass’ photo proudly hangs on the wall.

Bass participated in the nonprofit’s Show Your Soft Side campaign, promoting animal wellness and compassion. He chose to support Ten Lives Club and cat adoptions after several other athletes chose to support dog shelters. His photo features a Ten Lives Club cat.

The shelter received more than $25,000 dollars in donations on Monday, with more than $15,000 coming in through a Facebook Fundraiser where it encouraged Bills fans to not be so critical of their friend. The organization raised $182,000 by Tuesday after the fundraiser went viral.

‘Leave our friend alone’: Donations to cat adoption group for Tyler Bass exceed $180,000

The campaign has been remarkable and it extends well beyond Bills and Chiefs fans. Football fans and animal lovers alike are rallying behind the organization, which will allow it to help even more feline friends in need.

“It’s easy for me to say this because my team won but this way both parties are winners this way, whether its winning the football game or winning at life,” Brett Fitzgerald of Chiefs Kingdom Memes on Facebook said.

Fitzgerald organized a massive fundraising effort for the Patricia Allen Fund at Oishei Children’s Hospital after the Bills lost to the Chiefs in the 0:13 seconds game. Since then, he has had a friendly wager with the Bills Mafia Babes, a Buffalo-based fan group. If the Bills win, Buffalo fans will donate to a charity of the Chiefs Kingdom’s choice, and vice versa. After the loss on Sunday, Chiefs fans were already donating to Special Olympics of WNY for Bills center Mitch Morse.

“We had begun supporting Mitch Morse’s cause because of our bet with Bills Mafia Babes and a lot of people were asking ‘What are we going to do for Tyler Bass?’,” Fitzgerald said.

That’s when Chiefs Kingdom started donating to the shelter and donations poured in from across the NFL. ESPN and SportsCenter also shared the cause on social media, spurring additional donations worldwide.

Through social media, the fundraising effort spread even further, all the way to Bill Coaker in Virgina who donated $2,222 in honor of Bass’ number two.

“I saw the game over the weekend. I decided to contribute. I saw they were suggesting $22, so I just added two more twos,” Coaker said. “It’s going to enable Ten Lives to save many more cats. This will be a positive, transformational, seminal moment for them.”

Dr. Lori Shank is a Hamburg native and now runs an animal clinic in Fort Meade, Fla. She is friends with Maria Edwards, the founder of Ten Lives Club, and as a Bills fan and animal lover, Dr. Shank knew she needed to help. In celebration of her clinic’s 50th anniversary, she was already planning to donate $200 to local animal charities. In total, she gave $222.22 to the Buffalo-based shelter.

“I’m hopeful this really shed light on these smaller organizations that are really working away, chugging away in the trenches. This was really quite a windfall for them,” Dr. Shank said. “I know they’ve had a lot of lean times and hopefully this will help them continue the good work they’ve been doing.”

Bass deleted his social media after several negative comments and threats. Fans hope he knows how much they appreciate him on and off the field.

“The people that shot him down and brought him down because of this last game is no where near the people that are supporting him in this. It’s nice to see that he’s not forgotten. Animals are not forgotten and something so important to him is exploding,” Layfield added.

To donate to the Ten Lives Club, you can visit their donate page here. If you would like to adopt a feline friend of your own, you can visit the organization’s website.

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Tara Lynch is a Buffalo native and Emmy-nominated reporter who joined the News 4 team in 2022. She previously worked at WETM in Elmira, N.Y., a sister station of News 4. You can follow Tara on Facebook and Twitter and find more of her work here.

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