Dreams came true Tuesday morning, as ground was broken for the long awaited Pike Animal Shelter.

A large crowd gathered on the cold, windy February morning to applaud the efforts of private/public partnership that made the dream a reality.

Troy Mayor Jason A. Reeves said the reality of the Pike Animal Shelter is due to the persistence and dedication of an exceptional group of people who worked hard to get it done.

“Many people wondered if this day would ever come,” Reeves said and added laughing that Chris Schubert said some thought it would be a cold day somewhere if it ever happened. “Well, it’s a cold day in Pike County today.”

Reeves said the Pike Animal Shelter is the result of the efforts of the entire community coming together, of people who believed in an idea.

“I didn’t have a burning desire in the gut about the project until Ed Stephens came to me and said that we need to do better about the animals. He gave me the vision.”

Reeves thanked Walt and Debbie Stell and Andy Murphree for donating the property for the animal shelter and to the city council for its support.

“Today, we broke ground on the Pike Animal Shelter. The next time we come together, it will be to cut the ribbon on a state-of-the-art animal shelter,” Reeves said.

Joey Jackson, Pike County Commission chairman, said the Pike Animal Shelter has been the dream of many but it has taken dedication, persistence and the willingness to work together to make the animal shelter a reality.

“It took people putting aside their own interests and working together for common purpose to make this dream come true,” Jackson said.

Jack Rainey, Humane Society of Pike County president, said the groundbreaking day was a great day for all Pike County.

“We, at the Humane Society of Pike County had done all we could do and the Pike Animal Shelter Coalition had done all it could do but the Pike Animal Shelter would not have been a reality without the City of Troy floating the bond issue that carried us over the top,” Rainey said.

Donna Schubert, chair of the Pike Animal Shelter Coalition, said the belief was always that “this day would come.”

“We had all worked hard but we knew that no one could do this alone,” she said. “We knew that the community would have to come together.”

Schubert said the coming together of the private and public sectors is the reality of the Pike Animal Shelter.

“It was all of us working together,” she said. “It was every child who had a birthday party and said not to give gifts to them, to give to the animals. It was all of us.”

The idea for an animal shelter in Pike County originated with Schubert’s public relations class at Troy University in 2007.

The students took the idea and ran with it. The baton has been passed to many over the years. With a collective breasting of the tape, the race is done. The celebration of the life of animals has begun.