Dogpatch may be the only animal-related event the students and alumni of the veterinary school are not entirely educated about.
"That's just the name we started with," said Sharon Bailey, the Zeta Club manager for Omega Tau Sigma. "We're not really sure where it comes from, but we stuck with it."
Omega Tau Sigma, the professional fraternity for the College of Veterinary Medicine, hosted its first Dogpatch event Saturday, April 10.
"Dogpatch used to be a tradition of OTS in the early '60s and '70s," Bailey said. "It was like our own little version of Woodstock because it started out mainly as a bluegrass festival."
This year's Dogpatch event was considerably more family-friendly than Woodstock, according to Bailey.
The day's events consisted of party games such as a cake walk, Bingo, Duck Pond, Go Fish and a bean bag toss.
Party guests who wanted to sit back and enjoy the day were treated to music from local bands such as Dustin Wilkes, a finalist from Nashville Star, Destiny Brown, Griff Parrish and Baddnuff Band.
Admission was charged for the party in hopes of raising money for charity organizations.
"Chapter members came up with a list of suggestions to possibly donate to and we as a chapter voted on which two to donate the money to," said Jessica Brownfield, second year veterinary student and student chapter president of Omega Tau Sigma.
Brownfield said Omega Tau Sigma decided to donate the proceeds of Dogpatch to Storybook Farms, an animal farm helping disabled children, and Tuberous Sclerosis Complex, a research facility at University of Alabama at Birmingham, because chapter members have worked with those organizations in the past.
"This is one of the ways we as a fraternity try to do public works in the community," said Kris Hodges, an Auburn Veterinary School alumni and member of the Omega Tau Sigma Zeta club board of governors.
"Hopefully in the future we can continue doing this," Hodges said. "That's the plan, for this to be long term."
In addition to the good will of the event, Bailey said Dogpatch was revived due to an outpouring of requests from alumni.
"The alumni, they had been requesting it," Bailey said. "And these students had never experience it so we wanted to give it a go and see if it becomes a new tradition."
Brownfield said Dogpatch was not as well attended as Omega Tau Sigma would have hoped, but the event still managed to make "a few hundred dollars for the cause."
"In the future, we should probably try to coordinate better with Alpha Psi to make sure both of our events are on different evenings," said Brownfield in reference to the rodeo which was also held the same weekend.
Regardless of this year's attendance numbers, Brownfield said the members of Omega Tau Sigma were pleased with the results of the Dogpatch party.
"It's definitely something we'll consider continuing to do," Brownfield said. "Over time things will get better. It will be easier to plan as it gets more ingrained into the community."
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