Sharon Bodenhafer loved her ‘critters’. Dogs, cats – she loved them all.
She loved them so much that friends joked about being jealous when they visited Sharon and Chuck Bodenhafer at their homes in Fort Myers Beach and Fort Wayne, Indiana.
“They said if they ever reincarnated they wanted to come back as one of Sharon’s critters,” Chuck Bodenhafer says. “She took such good care of them.”
Sharon may be gone now — she died of cancer in 2017 — but she still takes care of critters in southwest Florida. All thanks to her husband and his determined mission to help as many animals as possible.
“Her spirit would want me to keep alive all the animals we could,” Bodenhafer says. “And especially all the saves.”
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He’s also been busy making some major donations to two of the largest no-kill shelters in Southwest Florida: Animal Refuge Center (ARC) in North Fort Myers and the Cape Coral Animal Shelter & Veterinary Clinic.
Thanks to Bodenhafer’s donations, the Cape shelter purchased a dental X-ray machine and other equipment in 2020. And in May, ARC opened a 2,500-square-foot state-of-the-art veterinary clinic that tripled their medical space and some much-needed new medical equipment.
It would normally have taken years to raise more than $600,000 for the clinic’s funding, says ARC chairman Wayne Leinen. But thanks to Bodenhafer’s donation, they didn’t have to wait — and neither did the 250-500 cats and dogs that call ARC home at any given time.
“It was a huge gesture of kindness and empathy for animals,” Leinen says. “It is the most expensive donation/project we have been able to undertake. … There is no way to say thank you enough.”
Now Bodenhafer is doing it again with two recent donations – albeit on a much smaller scale. He ordered two art benches from Fort Myers artist Vicky Firestone from both ARC and Cape Coral Animal Shelter.
Each sculpture-like sofa represents a different pair of Sharon and Chuck Bodenhafer’s favorite dogs and cats. And those chairs are widely used in both places: ARC volunteers often pause on the benches while walking dogs, and people pose on them at the Cape Shelter after adopting a new pet.
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Bodenhafer, 77, got the idea after seeing similar benches at another shelter he supports, Humane Fort Wayne in Fort Wayne. It’s yet another way to commemorate his wife and their mission to save as many cats and dogs as possible.
“I liked the idea so much… that I decided I would have a sofa painted in her honor,” he says.
Sharon Bodenhafer was 69 years old when she died. The hairdresser and pilot spent her life saving as many of her “critters” as possible – raising cats and dogs and caring for them until she could find them “home forever”.
Her husband — who owned a major insurance company in Indiana before selling it to Wells Fargo in 2006 — says he’s losing count of the number of critters they’ve saved over the years. Maybe 30. Maybe more.
“We had no children,” he says. “That’s why we do all this for the animals. …
“We always had critters, (and) we decided long before she got sick that we would take all the possessions we had and try to give them in honor of the critters and try to help with rescues.”
Bodenhafer wants that to continue long after he’s gone. That’s why he recently founded the Chuck and Sharon Bodenhafer Critter Foundation. All future donations will be made through that nonprofit, he says.
Those donations include Bodenhafer’s continued sponsorship of ARC’s annual Starlight Auction fundraiser and a planned 14,000-square-foot expansion at Cape Coral Animal Shelter.
Bodenhafer has a good feeling about all the animals that they have been able to save with their donations. Take, for example, that ARC clinic – officially known as the Sharon Bodenhafer Critter Clinic.
The clinic sees about 100 animals a week for vaccines, dental work, medication and other preventive care, Leinen says. Plus a few surgeries a week.
That medical assistance could also start immediately, says Bodenhafer. “The first day it was officially opened and they had all their supplies, two dogs were rescued. And so it is quite a good feeling.”
Artist Firestone says she’d love to be part of Bodenhafer’s mission to save the animals in Southwest Florida.
“I feel so honored,” she says. “I am so lucky to have met this kind, wonderful, generous man.”
Leaders at ARC and Cape Coral Animal Shelter feel the same way.
The Cape Shelter’s dental equipment has been helping cats and dogs for two years, says Executive Director Liz McCauley. “Chuck bought us some really state-of-the-art equipment that we use every day. … It has helped tons of animals, and we are so grateful.”
Bodenhafer declined to say how much he has spent on the banks and most of the other donations he has made in southwest Florida.
Plus, he says, he prefers not to focus on the money.
“It honors Sharon and the animals we had,” he says. “So you can’t put a price on that.”
Connect with this reporter: Charles Runnells is an arts and entertainment reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. Email him at crunnells@gannett.com or connect on Facebook (facebook.com/charles.runnells.7), Twitter (@charlesrunnells) and Instagram (@crunnells1).