It’s exciting that there’s a business here that’s going to promote and sponsor the community and support us to make things better for the pets and owners.”

Happy Hearts owner Ellen Sellers

Sherry Raleigh-Adams loves helping animals.
So the broker from Millennium Five Real Estate in Montgomery City invited the staff of Happy Hearts Animal Rescue to its ribbon cutting ceremony on Aug. 19 to make a big donation.
Over $500 was donated to the Jonesburg animal shelter. The donation was based on the number of people who signed the guestbook at the one-hour ribbon cutting event. About 30 people were in attendance.
“I want to sincerely thank Sherry,” Happy Hearts owner Ellen Sellers said. “It’s exciting that there’s a business here that’s going to promote and sponsor the community and support us to make things better for the pets and owners.”
The ribbon cutting ceremony was part of Millennium Five Real Estate’s grand opening. The building, located at 616 N. Sturgeon, was remodeled in February. The staff includes agents Pat Stumbaugh, Bart Korman, Karen Creech and Meagan McCulloch.
Millenium Five is affiliated with Keller Williams Realty West of O’Fallon.
“I used to be a Keller Williams realty agent,” Raleigh-Adams said. “I was really excited about all of their training and tools. After I bought this, I left them for a while. But we kept talking and we’re really excited to bring our agents as Keller Williams agents and have them provide all of the tools and all of the training they need to become really successful. We’re still Millenium Five and we’re still locally owned, but we have the backing of Keller Williams Realty West of O’Fallon as well.”
Raleigh-Adams said she was interested in representing Happy Hearts Animal Rescue because of its successful spay and neuter program.
“I’m still going to visit her facility and learn a little bit more about it,” the broker said. “But I’m anxious to be able to donate part of the proceeds from all of my personal closings to her to help her grow because she has the potential of doing a lot of good throughout this area.”
Sellers worked at her parents’ jewelry store and as an information technology manager for UniGroup before starting Happy Hearts Animal Rescue in 2009. She has been bringing animals home since she was 5.
“The shelter is strictly volunteer based, including me,” Sellers said. “There are no salaries. All donations go to the animals. We’re focusing on the animals in Montgomery right now. When I started Happy Hearts in 2009, there were 10,000 pets put to sleep every day. With low cost spay and neuter across the country, it’s down to 5,000 right now. But that’s still too many.”