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Love is...A Day without Chains
Below:
Sample Valentines
from Many of our Helpers
Dogs Deserve Better Delivers Valentines to 10,435 Dogs in it's 6th Annual Have a Heart for Chained Dogs Week, February 7-14, 2008, Exceeding our Goal by 435 Valentines!
The good news: We did it! Last year we missed our goal of 8,000 by almost 800 dogs...but this year, we came right back and exceeded our goal of 10,000 by over 400 Valentines! Give yourselves a pat on the back...without EVERYONE doing their share, this would never have been possible. We sent 3,203 more than last year, for a total of 10,435. We attribute much of our campaign success to your efforts and the efforts of our area reps, as well as the Best Friend's Network, which embraced the campaign and put it out to the main network as well as many of the state pages. HSUS also put the word out for us, and we received letters from classes who participated as a result of seeing the campaign in HSUS Kind News. Many, many of our valentine contributors came from near the Atlanta, Georgia area as a result of an Atlanta Journal Constitution article by Sandy Eckstein. The value of a good newspaper article can really go a long way!
One aspect of the DDB Area Rep responsibilities is to contribute 10 addresses to the campaign each year, and 2008 marked the third year DDB awarded prizes for the top three reps in address contribution. This year's 1st place winner is Shari Strader, NC, with 210 addresses. Way to go, Shari! Shari wins a new camera for her efforts...The camera was left-over from our auction when the winning-bidder reneged on the deal, and his loss became Shari's gain! 2nd place went to Marie Belanger and Jamie Shively, IN, with a combined total of 165 addresses. They will split a $100 worth of cafepress merchandise. 3rd place goes to Cathy Mahan, MD, with 90 addresses. Cathy wins $75.00 in cafepress merchandise. A special thanks to our reps who really put in the effort each year to help make our campaign a success.
Ms. Conrad's Los Angeles Class with some really BIG Valentines! Preparations for the event started in early January, when we sent out a press release and e-mail requesting help from students and other groups to make Valentines for the project. We seem to have feast or famine with the Valentines...last year we had too many, this year we had not nearly enough! With more individual participation this year as compared to class participation, the amount of Valentines received per packaged was markedly less, and so our totals were really down. On the bright side, we received some really incredible creations, which you'll see featured on these pages.
Club Kongo and Kayla in Michigan show off their creations Luckily we'd saved some of the best ones from last year, and used them for this year's campaign. We also cut it down to one Valentine per household no matter how many dogs live chained there (we prefer to send each dog a Valentine), and since some of our Valentines were way oversized, we did some creative cutting and adding little hearts and sayings like "Please Bring me in" to our revised creations. We also made and printed out hundreds from headquarters. We received a total of 5,371 gorgeous, heart-touching Valentines from 209 different groups and individuals, along with some great letters. With the approx. 1500 we saved from last year, this gave us 6871 Valentines to work with, and then we were on our own! We missed our abundance of Valentine makers, come back next year and give us your best creations...
Bellwood, PA Groups stuffing Valentines Unfortunately for us, the weather was pretty bad at our Saturday stuffing party, and many volunteers who we'd hoped would turn out didn't come to help. With the amount of Valentines increasing to such a huge amount, and losing some of our volunteer base, we had a really rough time getting them all sent out this year! Dawn Ashby, Heather Estlow, and Kim Campbell spent the entire next week stuffing and printing Valentines and labels, and special thanks to Robyn Fanelli and Jane and Jerry Hollabaugh, who did hundreds at home as well. Never forget, the educational value gained by the children and groups making the Valentines is equal to or greater than the value of those receiving the Valentines, which is what makes this campaign so unique and note-worthy; it works from both sides of the equation. Below, read some excerpts of letters received from those who made Valentines: From Tyler McManis, Age 10, Pennsylvania: "Dear DDB, here are some Valentines we made for the dogs. We hope everybody brings their dogs inside. I have 3 dogs and they live inside and we love them very much. Thank you for all the hard work you do for the dogs. We had fun making the Valentines." From Jeanine Baxter, Ohio: "I am the founder of HARP. I came up with a new Valentine design I wanted to share. I wrote a poem called 'Bring Me In' and placed a portion of the poem in the cards." From Veronica Noechel, North Carolina: "Hope you like the Valentines and can use them. We made them at my Stampin' Up charity event, and I gave out Dogs Deserve Better buttons I ordered from cafepress. Thank you so much for your hard and often grueling work. I know how thankless rescue work can be and how very much it matters to the animals." From Ms. Hartman, California: "My class of 3-4th graders sent these Valentines for those dogs chained or tethered. This is one of our KIND Kids Club activities. We do things in our town to raise awareness for mistreated animals. Thanks for caring! " From The Humane Society of Missouri: "Every year the Education Department has a Valentine's Day Event called "Share your heart with homeless dogs". We bake treats for the shelter dogs and make Valentines for you." From Carrie Nutter-Novak, Illinois: "Once again the children I provide occupational therapy services for at Chicago Public Schools have made cards for the canines in your outreach program. They were excited to wish the dogs a Happy Valentine's Day and to educate the animal guardians on appropriate pet care." From Nicole Kress-Scheidmantel, West Virginia: "These are from Jefferson County, WV Speech and Language-Delayed students. We read Buddy Unchained again and made these. Some children even cried about "Buddy". Very touching! West Virginia really needs a lot of help. It seems that animal abuse is a way of life here." Read MORE WONDERFUL notes from our contributors
Just a small sampling of the creations we received Of the packages of valentines mailed to Dogs Deserve Better, 61 of the 209 came from school classes and student/youth/scout clubs, 2 from human needs and welfare groups or organizations, 3 from businesses, 13 from animal welfare groups, and 130 from individuals and DDB reps.
Bellwood, PA Groups stuffing Valentines Valentines came in from 36 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada with the most coming from Georgia, where 36 groups or individuals participated. Pennsylvania was a close second with 29, and California was third with 17 groups or individuals participating, followed by New York with 13, Illinois with 12, and Tennessee with 11. We also received valentines from volunteers or groups in Texas, Nevada, Indiana, Ohio, Utah, North Carolina, Washington, Nebraska, Michigan, Florida, Maryland, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Kentucky, Virginia, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, Alabama, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Missouri, Maine, Minnesota, Oregon, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Louisiana, and Ontario, Canada. Thanks so much to all groups and individuals who sent valentines! We've photographed many of the valentines on this and subsequent pages; if your's doesn't appear this year, make sure we know for next year so we can get you featured then. The Valentines were absolutely gorgeous; some of them we didn't even want to send out they were so precious!
Valentines went to every state in the nation except North Dakota. Pennsylvania dogs received the most Valentines, with a total of 1659, followed by Ohio with 1004, North Carolina with 928, and Georgia with 673.
DDB held two Valentine stuffing parties in State College, PA and Bellwood, PA, with 33 volunteers showing up to help stuff envelopes, 19 less than last year! The State College stuffing party was led by DDB veterans Terri Bunge and Amy Smith, and drew 18 people. (Thanks to Dr. Denise Hinds-Zaami, Heather Stager, Toni Miles, Mary Miles, Amy Smith, Toni Gibson, Eric Bunge, Lesley Johnson, Tammy Grimes, Terri Bunge, Jen Spence, Cheryl Sharer, Brittany Sherman, Madelyne Falcone, Janel Greenland, Karen Schwentner, Alaina Del Real, and Kayly H.) The Bellwood Library stuffing party was organized by Tammy Grimes and Kim Campbell, and drew 15 people. Special thanks to ALL who gave of their time to help get the Valentines on their way! (Thanks to: Kim Campbell, Tammy Grimes, Heather Estlow, Timmy Estlow, Marlinna Estlow, Samantha Estlow, Sierra Barr, Dawn Ashby, Stacy LoCastro, Heather Stager, Vicki Gates, Reni Estep, Charles Estep, and Jane Hollabaugh.)
Successes are trickling in, and so far we are working on finding foster care for at least 5 dogs, and have sent out 2 fencing applications as a result. These cases are in the early phases, and we will post as we get more information. Dawn Ashby has reported that one of her addresses now has an empty doghouse, so she's taking that as a good sign, and will investigate further. Ohio Rep, Marla Dakes, reported her first Valentine Success Story. Harley is a beautiful long-haired German Shepherd who spent his life living in a pen. As a Valentine's Day gift of love - His caretakers called Marla, and released Harley to rescue. On 2/24/08, Harley was delivered to his forever home in Canada! Marla drove many of the miles from Ohio north herself. She is Harley's rescue angel.
Harley before rescue
Harley on his way to his new home! Harley's former caretakers sent the following note to DDB: My name is Ed, I tried to place our dog, Harley, with German Sheperd rescue for quite a while; no help! I contacted DDB and Marla Dakes did a lot to help find Harley a home. Every thing went great. Marla picked him up and took him. She found him a home, very fast. We will miss him but I pray he will get the love and freedom he deserves! Again I want to say thank you !!! God Bless Thanks, Ed If you sent in addresses and see any success, please send us the story at info@dogsdeservebetter.org so we can continue to update our listings and remove them from our database, they really help motivate us to continue!
Stats from the event: Groups/Individuals
who created and mailed Valentines: 209 Volunteers who stuffed Valentines: 33 Valentines
sent/delivered total: 10,435 Canada 51 United
States This year the only state that didn't have a Valentine sent to it was North Dakota. If you are in a state where you know there are a lot of chained or penned dogs, but you see hardly any Valentines mailed there, please get addresses right now, and we will mail them letters and brochures. It's important to start the educational process as soon as possible. Thanks so much to all who participated, we are making a difference in those dogs lives!
Please
help our work to continue! If you'd like to donate via regular USPS mail, you may print out this form in .pdf format, and send to P.O. Box 23, Tipton, PA 16684 |
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