Photo provided by Portage Health Foundation Heather Sander, a member of the Copper Country Humane Society’s Board of Directors, accepts a $5,000 donation through the Canal Run Gives Back program from organizing committee members Todd Gast, April Stevens and Angela Luskin.

HANCOCK — The Copper Country Humane Society’s cats will have a little more room thanks to the efforts of its staff and the help of the Canal Run.

The CCHS received a $5,000 check from the organizing committee of the annual run Thursday afternoon.

The donation is part of the Canal Run Gives Back program, which has given out more than $25,000 to nonprofits that serve Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw or Ontonagon counties since 2017.

“We are very, very excited,” said race director Angela Luskin. “It’s a very worthy cause in our community.”

Heather Sander, a member of the CCHS board, was on hand to accept the check Thursday. A main target of the funds will be updating the “extremely small” cat kennels, Sander said. It will cost $8,500 a piece. A donor stepped in to contribute half of the cost.

“This will actually help offset those costs, because we have a lot of cats that aren’t ready to go out into the real world with their friends, so it’ll help take the stress off them,” she said. “… One of the main things we’re going to put it towards right now is updating that, because we need three or four more.”

In exchange for the donations, CCHS members stepped in as volunteers for the annual run, held in July.

Sander and her daughter helped check people in. Others helped manage crosswalks at busy intersections or present medals to winners at the end of the race.

“I know it helps us, because a lot of us haven’t done it before,” Sander said. “So it gets us to be like, ‘Oh, this is not so bad, getting up at 5:30 in the morning to help out.’ And so I’m sure you’ll have some lifelong volunteers.”