NORTH PLATTE, Nebraska (AP) -- Four years after Mayor Jim Whitaker walked his dog Naked through town to raise money for the city's Paws-itive Partners animal shelter, the publicity stunt is still reaping rewards.
The North Platte mayor raised a lot of eyebrows and some criticism in 1998 when he pledged to walk Naked if $5,000 was raised for the new animal shelter.
He soon after made it known that Naked was a dog.
Remembering the publicity stunt, Marie and Marvin Spivack, a retired Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, couple, have willed their personal property and any insurance to the animal shelter upon their deaths, which could add up to more than $400,000.
"We hope to still be around awhile, but when we both go they will get everything," said Marie.
She and her husband, Marvin, made a donation to the animal shelter and have made several more since. The mayor ended up getting the attention of animal lovers nationwide and raised $9,000.
The Spivacks are not strangers to North Platte. Marvin was one of the thousands of soldiers who passed through the community on a troop train during World War II.
"We think the world of the people in North Platte," Marie Spivack said. "We also love animals so much so we thought this would be a perfect gift."
The North Platte mayor raised a lot of eyebrows and some criticism in 1998 when he pledged to walk Naked if $5,000 was raised for the new animal shelter.
He soon after made it known that Naked was a dog.
Remembering the publicity stunt, Marie and Marvin Spivack, a retired Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, couple, have willed their personal property and any insurance to the animal shelter upon their deaths, which could add up to more than $400,000.
"We hope to still be around awhile, but when we both go they will get everything," said Marie.
She and her husband, Marvin, made a donation to the animal shelter and have made several more since. The mayor ended up getting the attention of animal lovers nationwide and raised $9,000.
The Spivacks are not strangers to North Platte. Marvin was one of the thousands of soldiers who passed through the community on a troop train during World War II.
"We think the world of the people in North Platte," Marie Spivack said. "We also love animals so much so we thought this would be a perfect gift."
