Exciting Fundraising News

We have just received some incredibly exciting fundraising news that we would like to share with you. 

Taken from the Caerphilly Observer: Two Caerphilly town residents are to embark on a Wales-wide charity fundraising drive to raise £1 million.

Jamie Pritchard and Louise Kirton hope to raise the cash for charities Ty Hafan, The Prince’s Trust, Four Paws Animal Rescue and Autism Cymru.

Their first event is at Virginia Park Golf Club on March 24 at 7pm. Admission to the entertainment evening is £5.

Louise and Jamie

University graduate Jamie, 26, said: “Both myself and Louise have always been charity-minded. Both of us have worked for charities, in paid and voluntary capacities, and it’s something that we’ve always wanted to do so we thought why not put this plan into action instead of mucking about. We’ve had some very encouraging messages from people.

“The plan is to start locally at Virginia Park Golf Club and go on from there. We’re still planning our route through the rest of Wales but are in touch with all of the local councils.”

The pair, who are currently out of work, have decided to put their time to good use and are calling their fundraising drive ‘Speak to a Million Raise a Million’ – or Stamtram for short.

Jamie said the idea for a million was to make sure that people could donate within their means given the current tough economic situation.

Louise, 36-year-old former market trader, added: “I’m a single mum of two and know that if someone were to ask me for just £1 towards a charity, I would give. Both my daughters have given £1 each out of their pocket money to start off the cause.”

Jamie said: “We have done quite a lot of work on this project but there is still so much we have to do. Sometimes it’s hard going when you’re chasing people and filling out forms, but it’s all going to be worth it in the end.”

The two friends have already received the backing of Caerphilly AM Jeff Cuthbert and Real Radio will be tracking their progress as they make their journey.

For more information about Jamie and Louise’s Welsh charity adventure, visit www.stamtram.org

You can also follow their progress on Facebook www.facebook.com/pages/STAMTRAM/306357029410478

A big thank you to Louise and Jamie for choosing to support Four Paws Animal Rescue, South Wales. Good luck with your fundraising venture.

2011 All wrapped up!

The lovely Seth who is still looking for a foster home

Let's hope that this prestigious year goes as well for everyone at Four Paws as 2011 did. We have not yet posted our current statistics from last year and thought that it would be a perfect time to do so on our new blog.

Drum roll please...

In 2011 a grand total of 627 dogs passed through the loving and caring hands of the volunteers of Four Paws. This is a magnificent number for a charity of our size where everyone dedicates their own time. However, the foster carers deserve a massive pat on the back for the comfort they gave to their fosters and for their continued support.

You may be puzzled about how on earth we rescued 627 dogs in one year, so I shall break it down for you to give a more detailed picture. Of this total 301 were placed in foster and found their forever homes, 289 were transferred to other rescues, 20 are still with us at time of print and sadly, we lost a few to old age or illness.

Every year we have been increasing the total number of dogs passing through our hands. This is a testament to our fundraising volunteers who year-on-year raise even more money to allow us to help even more. It is also down to the fantastic relationships we have with other rescues and the continued hard work of Kirsty who's magic wand can find a space from nothing.

We mainly work with our local pounds where we rescue dogs after 7 days when they might otherwise be euthanized if they are not claimed. In 2011 we saved 380 from being put to sleep and 194 were handed in from owners who could no longer manage. This is also the first year we felt able to extend a helping hand to another country and helped home/place 33 dogs from Ireland. The final 22 belong to all the lovely little pups that were born in rescue with us and we would be remiss to mention Leanne and Kaz who have been on almost permanent midwife duty for 6 months.

All in all it's been a fantastic year, which couldn't have happened without your support and hard work. We hope 2012 will be another fantastic year and I know that we will be all winners not just in the Olympics but the the hearts and minds of the dogs we help.
Report submitted by Seran Davies, secretary

Thank you

L-R Fran, with Bliss, Kirsty, Seran, Maggie and Molly

Four Paws Animal Rescue would like to say a big thank you to one of their dedicated supporters, Molly Lewis, aged 14, from Cardiff.

She decided to email lots of dog food producers telling them about the charity and thanks to her efforts we have received lots of lovely dog food and treats from Wagg and Fish4Dogs, which we will be sharing out between our foster and kennel dogs.

Thanks again!

fourpawsanimalrescue.blogspot.com

Kimmie - our 2000th dog to be rehomed

Firstly, an apology is in order. We have neglected our blog lately and so have decided to create an entirely new one to promote on Facebook, our website and on our forum.

George (Symdaddy) did a great job with our old blog in 2011 and we were unable to continue it to his standards so felt it more appropriate to start again with a completely different format.

I'll start where the old blog left off, which was November last year.

Since then we have rehomed our 2000th dog. Kimmie was fostered by Julia and family who prepared her for her forever home. We are all very proud of this achievement and will continue to save more needy souls this year.

Bonnie

In the run up to Christmas we were incredibly busy with more dogs than ever coming into the pound and being handed in. On top of that we have to reduce the amount of dogs in the kennels right down to two or three.

Gryff

A big thank you goes out to all of those volunteers who came forward. Fosterers made room for a couple of dogs in their homes and a huge fundraising effort helped pay for those dogs still in kennels. It was much appreciated and if it wasn't for you we wouldn't have got through it!

Our Christmas show was a huge success too. We managed to raise £800. It seems like such a long time ago now but we also had our autumn online auction, which pulled in over £2000. So many amazing lots were bound to create a lot of interest - all those beautiful holiday cottages too. I wonder if any of the winners have taken their holiday yet...

If you're wondering who the gorgeous Gryff is, he is the winner of our online photograph competition. I didn't envy the judges on this one. They had a very tough job to come up with a winner from every category. The entries were of a very high standard as usual and I think most of us thoroughly enjoyed browsing through all of the pictures.


Right, that's got us up to 2012... We have launched our Just One Thing fundraising campaign and hope to reach our target of £27,000 by the end of the year. It sounds like a staggering amount of money but did you know, every dog we take in costs us on average £250 and that doesn't include the adoption donation. Vets bills are our biggest expense as you can imagine.

Have a think... what could you do to help us raise funds? Perhaps a bungee jump, car boot sale or a sponsored walk. With all that wonderful summer weather we are sure to get this year there must be something!

Last Saturday was our Valentine Paws 4 Tea event in Llandaff Community Centre, Cardiff. We opened the doors at 2pm and by 2.15 it was standing room only. What a huge turnout! All the dogs were impeccably behaved and we have hopefully attracted a lot of prospective new owners as they fell in love with many of the foster dogs in attendance. Those cakes... A special mention must go to the cake stall. All that baking and hard work paid off though. We raised nearly £720!