BSPCA News
Wiggling for Welfare
April
2008 kicked off with a bang for the BSPCA. The first weekend of the
month saw our society in action at both the annual Gaborone Raft Race,
where we volunteered for entrance gate duty and sold our wares at a
craft stall to raise funds for the shelter, as well as the first annual
Wiggle Waggle Walk-a-thon.
The
Wiggling and Waggling commenced bright and early on a sunny Sunday
morning, with participants arriving as early as 7:00 a.m. to register
for the event. As the autumn sun rose over Broadhurst, a swarm of
privileged pooches excitedly dragged their bleary-eyed humans
(particularly those who had participated in the previous day’s raft
race) onto the shelter premises to enjoy a refreshing cup of coffee,
some delicious home-baked treats, and most importantly: to undertake a
brisk 4km walk in the name of BSPCA fundraising.
The Special Guests of the Day
And why, we asked ourselves, should only the privileged pooches get to
have all the fun? For this event, it was decided that the spotlight
should be on the real stars of the BSPCA: the shelter dogs themselves.
Sue and the staff
have worked diligently with those up for adoption, ensuring that as many
future-adoptees as possible are trained to walk nicely on a leash, and
are socialized in a way such that any able-bodied volunteer could be
honored to parade them through the course of the Walk-a-thon. It was as
if Christmas had come early for the 80 or so dogs that were leashed up,
assigned a human, and led off into the distance. Behaviour was
impeccable, and there were several long faces as the last kilometer came
to an end and the kennels came back into sight.
Feeding the Masses
After completing the tranquil, scenic loop around the powerline corridor
and residential Broadhurst East, 4-legged and 2-legged walkers alike
were treated to fresh bowls of water and a delicious braai brunch fried
up to perfection. The Family Strugnell flipped boerewors with flare, and
a variety of liquid refreshments were a welcome sight as the
participants crossed the finish line back at the shelter. Leftover
cakes and coffee from the early morning were also polished off, and a
variety of BSPCA products such as tee-shirts and dog apparel were sold
at the vendors’ stations as dogs and humans socialized and had a good
sniff around.
The Bottom Line
After the last crumble had been lapped up and all shelter residents had
been tucked away for a well-earned rest, we eagerly awaited the results
of the day’s fundraising to be added up. Over P20,000 was earned through
sales and registration fees, and thousands were raised by the
enthusiastic students of local schools such as Maru-a-Pula, Broadhurst,
Thornhill, and Norhtside for the shelter. The highest sponsorship raiser
was Mark Carr-Hartley, who was able to raise in excess of P2,000 and won
a TV for his efforts, thanks to the generosity of Pinnacle Sales and
Distribution. Even more impressive was the fact that due to this event,
three adoptions were achieved on the day!
The BSPCA committee
would like to thank all walkers, both hound and human, for participating
in our first Walk-a-thon and helping us raise some much needed funds for
the shelter. We would also like to express our gratitude to all
volunteers who gave up their Sunday morning to help make it such a
success. We look forward to doing it all over again next year!
A fabulous turnout was witnessed under clear blue skies, on the greenest
grass in town, for our annual Golf Day on 29 June. The warm winter sun
shone on over a hundred golfers and non-golfers alike, who all enjoyed a
day out at the Gaborone Golf Club to raise record-making funds for the
BSPCA.
The competition was a shotgun start, starting at 8.30 am. This year’s
format was known as a Four-ball Alliance. Our friendly resident golfers
explain further: “three scores to count on the par threes and two scores
to count on the par fours and fives”. For any non-golfers desiring a
translation, please see Ann Dayton, our highly successful Golf Day
mastermind, and sporting expert.
For the impressive field of 132 golfers on the day, prizes were in
abundance thanks to a variety of very generous sponsors, as well as
hard-earned refreshments, which were consumed in copious quantities.
Big-hearted sponsors such as Kgalagadi Breweries and USN contributed
plenty of liquid nourishment while the delicious food donations from Pie
City, Kgale Spar, Payless, and Notwane Poultry kept everyone going
strong, throughout the day.
While the old standard brand-name golf shirt and v-neck did make a
predictable appearance on the greens, everyone agreed that the prize for
fashion on the day truly belonged to the steadfast caddies who were
kitted out for the day with sponsorship t-shirts kindly donated by Greg
Powel. This kind donation also included impressive golf packs for the
players, who gladly used their lucky balls and tees in an attempt to win
prizes for a variety of contests including “nearest the pin”, “longest
drive” and “nearest the hole in three on a par five”.
Winning the day with a score of 91, was the intrepid combo of H.Ross,
P.Maas, M.Ross, and G.Giachetti. However, the big winners overall were
all of us at the BSPCA who have the honor of accepting a whopping
P84,000 raised through a combination of donations and sponsorship as a
result of the event, to be used with pride in our endeavours to raise
awareness and education related to animal welfare in Botswana. For
that, all of us, both 2-legged and 4-legged, are eternally grateful.
More golf day pics
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Upcoming
Events
Saturday 29 November: Art in the Park
Time: 10 am onwards
Place: Kgale Siding (off the
Lobatse Road near St. Joseph's College)
Entry: Free!
Hope to see
you there!!
Sunday is a Mum
It is with a great deal of
pleasure, and relief, that Sunday, our very oversize female
goat, has eventually rewarded us by producing two wonderful
little Kids.
This picture was taken twelve
hours after delivery and they are already up and walking. (Don’t
you just wish our kids could do the same.)
The Black one in the
foreground resembles the father. Is a goat, has big ears and is
male. (Father is white) The little one at the back, totally
intrigued by the craftsmanship of the woodwork or the amount of
accumulated dust is the female - Colouring of the mother with
fathers features. (Whitish face?)
Sunday is the big one in the
middle.
Neither of the Kids have been
named yet but maybe someone can do that for us before the Fun
Day and get a special mention on the day?
They are at the Shelter so come visit and get some inspiration.
The Rascals went to Riverwalk
During an event organised by volunteers of the BSPCA, which was
undoubtedly a hit in many ways, we found ourselves and our
weapons – our cutest puppies (and out of the two groups of
beings mentioned thus far, those are the rascals we refer to),
at Riverwalk on the 21st of June. The event was
organised to raise funds for feeding the animals sheltered by
the BSPCA, and many who were approached to donate, reciprocated
good wishes with monetary donations or bags of dog food. Thanks
to the volunteers of the day, who comprised mainly of BAPS
Swaminarayan youth and Maru-a-Pula Secondary students, and in
spite of a few (understandable) blatant ‘no’s’ and ‘I don’t like
mongrels’; P 5800 and a trolley full of dog food was collected.
After all, the saying goes, all they need is love, food and...
food? This event was a roaring success for our small
organisation which has had to struggle for funding quite often.
If only it were possible, the barks of the dogs, meows of the
cats and er, chewing of the rabbits could thank you all enough,
but as compensation for the non occurrence of that, this
is a large and grateful WE APPRECIATE YOU to all who could spare
something!
With the exception of only minor glitches, all ran pretty
smoothly. However, a tragedy befell us too in the form of one
of those minor glitches. That too: a story with a donor playing
starring role. It seems this chap arrived with all the drive in
the world. After an initial flamboyant expression of how he was
‘going to donate ‘X’ amount today!’, he bumbled off to place it
in the hands of someone wearing a BSPCA logo on their jacket’s
sticker. Unfortunately, (for the unsuspecting donor and clearly
not for the unsuspecting receiver), the sticker said ‘I support
the BSPCA’ and was one given to all who provided any donation.
Discount! As comfort for concerned readers, we assure you that
our amused (though reluctant) donor, gladly reimbursed us our
potential loss. His identity will be withheld for fear of
excessive amusement.
The BSPCA is constantly seeking donations in cash or in kind
(that kind being some kind of pet food); as no amount is too
little for these animals who are in daily need.
Despite the few laughs everyone undoubtedly had , the importance
of such an event cannot be downplayed; the results were of great
help to our pets, and we can only pray for future successes as
we try to maintain a contented lifestyle for them.
Long live the rascals! - Actually the cuties
2007
Events & News archive
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