Post by coconut on Oct 31, 2008 1:53:23 GMT -5
Today I had the privilege of speaking to the Washing State L & I employees at an event they call Soup Kitchen. There were 10-15 Crock Pots full of homemade soups, stews, chili & Pastas donated by fellow employees and it appeared that WSL&I provided rolls, drinks & dessert. It appears that each week during an event they call Combined Fund Drive they hold these Soup Kitchens where employees pay $5 a head to come in and have lunch in a conference room and listen to representatives from 1-2 charities. Then the two charities split the money earned that day PLUS they get a percentage of the money raised during this 6 week period in addition to other fundraising activities. That's not all....in 2009 any employee of WSL&I can designate a payroll deduction to be paid to SAFE...it can be as simple as "Please take $5 out of each paycheck and give it to SAFE" and then once a quarter WSL&I will cut a check directly to us.
I got to go and speak on behalf of SAFE today ;D I was given aprox 5 minutes during each of the two lunch shifts to tell the WSL&I employees about our mission, what we do, about our horses and got to brag about our amazing volunteers. They gave me a table to set up SAFE Style and people came up to ask questions. There I got to show them photos of the horses and tell them about some of our fundraising efforts like the Horse Show.
We had a fairly good repsonse. While I was speaking I could see concern and sympathy. I believe we made a good impression.
The other charity there was Behavioral Health Services which provides the call center for 2-1-1. Don't feel bad if you don't know what that is because I didn't either until today but it's a resource information hot line that people can call to get assistance with things like impending utility shut-off, where to find food banks or clothing, where to find shelter for the homeless and a vast array of other services. I had to ask if they'd ever received any horse related calls and she indicated that her center, Thurstan County, had not although she recently discovered that there was an emergency pet food resource in their contact list. I never knew there was such a phone number to call so I thought I'd share that with you.
After the event I got to meet Dri who was responsible for us being invited to attend. She turns out just to be a horse lover and has her own rescued TB named George whom she obviously loves dearly! She said that she researched horse rescues and found that a few had websites that had not been updated since 2006 and ultimately contacted four groups. SAFE was the only one to respond & she told us that she was glad because of all the groups she looked at, she was most impressed by us & hoped we'd be the one to get chosen. I've invited her to the message board and share photos of George. But I'd like to tell you all what an honor it was to be able to tell what ALL OF YOU do to help horses. I do believe we've made a difference...YOU should all be very proud!! ;D
I got to go and speak on behalf of SAFE today ;D I was given aprox 5 minutes during each of the two lunch shifts to tell the WSL&I employees about our mission, what we do, about our horses and got to brag about our amazing volunteers. They gave me a table to set up SAFE Style and people came up to ask questions. There I got to show them photos of the horses and tell them about some of our fundraising efforts like the Horse Show.
We had a fairly good repsonse. While I was speaking I could see concern and sympathy. I believe we made a good impression.
The other charity there was Behavioral Health Services which provides the call center for 2-1-1. Don't feel bad if you don't know what that is because I didn't either until today but it's a resource information hot line that people can call to get assistance with things like impending utility shut-off, where to find food banks or clothing, where to find shelter for the homeless and a vast array of other services. I had to ask if they'd ever received any horse related calls and she indicated that her center, Thurstan County, had not although she recently discovered that there was an emergency pet food resource in their contact list. I never knew there was such a phone number to call so I thought I'd share that with you.
After the event I got to meet Dri who was responsible for us being invited to attend. She turns out just to be a horse lover and has her own rescued TB named George whom she obviously loves dearly! She said that she researched horse rescues and found that a few had websites that had not been updated since 2006 and ultimately contacted four groups. SAFE was the only one to respond & she told us that she was glad because of all the groups she looked at, she was most impressed by us & hoped we'd be the one to get chosen. I've invited her to the message board and share photos of George. But I'd like to tell you all what an honor it was to be able to tell what ALL OF YOU do to help horses. I do believe we've made a difference...YOU should all be very proud!! ;D
