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!

Time For Tee

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

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

 

 

 

News Archive - 2007

“Art in the Park” 1st December 2007

 This event was officially opened on Friday 30th of November with a cocktail party and the delicious eats were kindly provided by Bolux Milling. The evening ended with a very dramatic rainstorm and great running around to get everything under cover!

 Despite our worries the weather turned out to be perfect for the event. At about 8:30 am stall holders began to arrive and started setting up their stalls. There were about 40 stalls that displayed the immense talent in and around Gaborone.

 The BSPCA also had a stall and displayed our new T-shirts, Christmas cards and calendars. We also had a stall that sold coffee and tea and the most delicious cakes, as well as a bar for an ice cold beer or a glass of chilled wine.

 This year we decided to have an area where Mum and Dad could leave the children in safety!  We had puppies, rabbit, guinea pigs and adorable kittens.  There was clay for the children to try out their artistic talent.  Shelly Norton did some amazing face painting and had queues awaiting her ministrations.  This area proved a great success and we also homed a puppy and several kittens!!

 Schalk Smit and his helpers from Bolux cooked, and manned the food stall, and sold boerewors rolls, pasta salad and chicken that was provided by Dave Gilbert from Tswana Pride.

 The public and stall holders all thoroughly enjoyed the day as did the BSPCA staff and volunteers.  A big thanks to those volunteers and donors who made the day so successful for the BSPCA.  Without them none of the success of the day could have been achieved. 

 We would especially like to thank the following donors and participants:

  • Taylor Flemming, the managing director of Bolux Milling, for sponsoring the cocktail party, providing the pasta and cooking the boerewors. Also for providing four food parcels as raffle prizes.

  • Karen Malan and Brett Oostuizen for donating a painting each for the raffle.

  • Debbie Morgan, from Ray Morgan Agency for the main raffle prize.

  • Dave Parry for the lovely venue.

  • Kingsley and associates for the printing of the raffle tickets.

  • All the bakers that provided the lovely cakes.

  • And last but not least Harold and Geraldine Hester who, once again, were the main organisers of the event.

  • Finally - to all our members of the BSPCA who supported the event.  

SORRY NO PICTURES!! WE FORGOT TO BRING A CAMERA!!  PROMISE WE WILL NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE AGAIN!

B.S.P.C.A. 20th Anniversary “Fun Day”

Preparations for this particularly special day began several months ago and as the name suggested it was to be a celebration and  “fun”!

As there was no records of such a large enterprise previously being undertaken, the Committee, together with coerced helpers and press ganged volunteers, undertook the task of pasting together various ideas which could conceivably be interpreted as a celebration of twenty years existence but also reflect the enthusiasm and efforts that had been applied by all past committees and members.

The basics were obvious, various stalls, food and entertainment. How simple does that sound ? But no, let’s set ourselves a challenge and do something really radical. Let’s do things differently.

The end result was a totally exhausting ride into the unknown, and for those who were able to get to the Shelter to observe the events, it was most certainly different.

From the donkey cart rides to the professional services of Apache Spur; The traditional dancers to the Kennel Dogs agility display; The extended shade areas to the stable, inclusive of Saturday (sheep), Sunday (largest goat), Monday (smallest goat) two donkeys, horses, foals, the rabbits and guinea pigs, and not forgetting our homeless dogs and cats. The stalls with so much variation that it was difficult to decide where to go to next. Although the wine tasting did seem to be very popular !!

As with all events the weather played its part in throwing the organisers into total disarray. The previous weekend it had rained heavily, to say the least, leaving vast areas under many centimeters of water. Doom and gloom suggested this could be a problem on the “Day” so immediate steps were taken to rectify the problem even though it was a public holiday. JCB obtained (many thanks to Derek and Manie of AG Pump and Tank) and trenches dug and drainage put in place. Of course *** law stepped in and the day must have been the hottest so far this season leaving everyone scrambling for shade instead of shelter.

The valiant MC managed to make light of the absence of a band and borrowed a sound system from Daniel. Future events will hopefully include additional communication to the “Voice To The People” and provide him with up to date relevant information. Sorry! He did a great job with the little he was given

In general the impressions gained would indicate that the efforts of “ALL” those involved, both organisers and participants, was well worth the effort. Different it certainly was. Improvable – Yes – so give us feedback. Email works, letters still work, and if you have time so does word of mouth.

Maybe next time, and I am sure there will be a next time, we will get entry forms back for the events that required that input, as it was impossible to arrange these events effectively without numbers.

Special thanks to all those who assisted, participated, sponsored, provided or just enjoyed themselves.

Art in the garden

On Sunday 23rd September members of the public were lucky to get to see and purchase art works by a  range of extremely talented local artists.  It was a wonderful exhibition hosted by Gill and Dave Gilbert in Notwane.

The BSPCA were fortunate to be asked to run the ‘bar’ and provide food for the people present and this enabled us to raise money for the Shelter.  The artists also donated a percentage of their sales to us and we are very grateful for their continued support.

We took along a selection of the current Shelter puppies and these were very well looked after by the children present.  They were exhausted by the time they got back to the Shelter and had ‘very full’ tummies!

Westwood food donation event

A group of girls from Westwood school organized donations of dog and cat food for the BSPCA. The children loved seeing the animals Daniel from the BSPCA brought along. Lea  gave a short speech thanking them for the donations and also introducing what the BSPCA does. Further activities planned by the students include forming an animal club and fundraising for the BSPCA.

 

  

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