The Detroit Dachshund Club hosted it's inaugural Wiener Walk in Rochester Saturday.

The event was inspired by similar events that have taken place throughout Europe gathering thousands of Dachshund breed dogs for a walk.

More than 100 wiener dogs and their owners signed up for Saturday's event including 7 News Detroit's Whitney Burney who hosted the walk.

"Well, there's dachshund clubs all over the country and all over the world, and I just wanted to make one here," said DDC Founder Kelly Honos. " We meet up once a month and we do events like this and we have fundraising events in Detroit all the time. We have Halloween parties, so we try to make it fun for the dogs and the people."

The event was complete with artists and a food truck. The event organizers say 10% of the food truck proceeds in addition to donations given for event tickets will benefit the Dachshund Haus and Corgi Rescue. The volunteer based non profit helps to place surrendered doxies and corgis into forever homes. They also serve in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.

Honos said Saturday's meet up sold around 150 tickets. The money raised can help get dogs out of abusive and neglectful situations helping them on their healing journey.

"I was very amazed," said Honos of the turnout. "I believe we made over $2000 for the rescue."

DDC will be hosting another wiener dog meet up next month at the Detroit Shipping Company called the Midwest Wiener Fest. The fundraising event is set to include vendors, flash tattoos and food. More information can be found on the DDC Instagram and social media pages.

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A community garden in Eastpointe is working to combat food insecurity by providing free produce to neighbors in need, but they need more volunteers to expand their efforts.

Watch Whitney Burney's video report: Eastpointe community garden looks to expand to help more neighbors in need

The Eastpointe Community Garden, run by nonprofit Urban Seed, has grown thousands of pounds of food since its inception in 2012. All produce is grown in their giving garden and given away, completely free of charge, to community members every Saturday.

The garden also rents out raised beds for $40 a month to neighbors who are interested in learning more about gardening or trying their hand at it but may not have the space or opportunity at home. The money raised helps to pay the garden's water bill as they grow produce.

"It's just a really magical place," said William Randazzo, who is the president of Urban Seed.

Randazzo is one of the dedicated gardeners that neighbors can find tending to the dozens of raised beds at the garden.

"I have radishes up the front. I have peas growing all up the back. This is our pea trellis," said Randazzo as he walked 7 News Detroit crews through the garden Tuesday. "We've already started with our spring crop. We've started with radishes and peas and broccoli and cabbage. Once those are ready to harvest, we'll get started with our summer crop.

While the garden has been successful in providing fresh produce to those in need, organizers say they need more community support to meet their goals.

"We need more hands, like, that's simply put. We need more people to come here and donate free labor on their days off," said John Hofmann, who is one of the garden's founding members.

Last year, the community garden grew about 1,600 pounds of produce. This year, they hope to increase that amount to 2,000 pounds of food to give away to the community. Theyre also working to bring this operation to other municipalities, including in Warren where theyre hoping to build a community garden near 8 Mile and Schoenherr.

The garden's expansion plans come at a critical time as food insecurity affects an estimated 12% of households in Macomb County, according to Feeding America.

"People have a really difficult time making hard decisions like am I going to purchase my medications or am I going to buy food? Am I going to take care of my animals or am I going it's really hard. To know that we can make just a little bit of a difference in somebody's life or let them know that they're seen or they're important and somebody does care about them. I don't think I have the words to express how that makes me feel personally," said Hofmann.

The official volunteer season kicks off at the community garden on May 17. Those interested in helping or donating can find more information on the Urban Seed website. Theres also information on raised bed rentals and donations.

This story was reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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