Teeing up to help animals at Shekarchi Scramble
- Patrick Cole
- Oct 7, 2025
- 2 min read
October 8, 2025
By John Howell
You won't find House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi on a golf course, but you might find him holding a leash and walking his dog, Merlin, near his home in Warwick.
Yet last Tuesday, Shekarchi spent the afternoon and early evening at Topgolf in Cranston. He neither lifted a club nor held a leash. This was the fifth edition of the Shekarchi Scramble, a golfing event for the benefit of animal rescue services, especially the Friends of the Warwick Animal Shelter. The scramble started off at the Quidnessett Country Club with participants playing the 18-hole course followed by a dinner and awards that evening.
Last year the scramble stepped sideways, reserving the third tier of Topgolf, thereby enabling more people to participate, and what Shekarchi likes best of all – allowing him to visit and talk with all those supporting the event without tracking down them on the links.
Last year the scramble raised more than $73,000, with $36,683 going to the Friends of the Warwick Animal Shelter, more than $26,000 to West Place Animal Sanctuary in Tiverton and $10,000 to Anchor Paws.
Cranston state Rep. Jackie Baginski, who organized the event with Friends president Judy Salvadore, estimated 250 people turned out for the scramble. She said proceeds are still being tallied and that she’s hopeful the amount going to help animals will be close to what it was last year.
Salvadore said the money raised enables the Warwick Animal Shelter to afford medical procedures for many of the rescue dogs and cats that end up at the shelter. She said that "it’s tight" at the shelter as people are giving up animals because of financial constraints. She feels it important to stop the importing of animals from other parts of the country, as done by rescue agencies, to give shelters some measure of relief.
Patrick Cote of West Place likewise said allocations from the Scramble have played an important role in providing a sanctuary to farm animals and wildlife.
"Farm animals don’t have a lot of places to go," he said, pointing out that donkeys, cows and horses are among the 300 animals that have found a home at the sanctuary.
"It was a huge success," Baginski said of the scramble, which brought together about 250 people for the cause of helping animals.