2022 Year in Review

This YEAR IN REVIEW update follows the adage that “Life happens while you’re busy making other plans!

We say this every year, so we are getting better at accepting, staying in the moment, and adapting while always asking “what is the best path forward for our animals and our mission?”

Here are some of the highlights of 2022.

New Residents
We added 5 Alpacas to our small herd, and brought 3 Great Pyrenees to the Sanctuary who were living on their own outdoors for an unknown time and continue to socialize them, care for their medical needs, and will train them over time to hone their natural farm herding and protective instincts.

Open Houses
Our open house Saturdays were a big success in increasing community awareness, and because of them we received many more donations of food, treats, and follow up inquiries to volunteer!

Programming

  • We held a yoga class with a tour to meet the animals as a fundraiser led by Lorraine Fitzgerald of Sandy Pause Yoga. We hope to partner again!

  • Our volunteer program has grown – we have more than doubled this year to include people tending to the animals and helping at the farm

  • We have been able to provide jobs for “community volunteer hours” needed by educational and assistance programs.

Events

  • We created our first major fundraising event at the Acorn in June and in doing so started a tradition of having a Spring Kick Off Concert! Look for info soon on the March 4, 2023 event, also at the Acorn!

  • We have been supported with sponsorship of our organization by individuals and businesses in our community and are forming some community partnerships to bring more programs here and to the area.

  • We have developed an event committee to help in planning and working events, and are creating a fundraising committee.

  • We had our First Blessing of the Animals here on St Francis day, with a big community turnout, which was so heartwarming for us as well as our fur and feather babies!

  • Our Fall Fest DOUBLED in size this year… and we’re already planning for 2023!

  • We brought our three donkeys - Minnie, Jill and Daisy - to be a part of the Three Oaks Snowflake Stroll, a lovely community event kicking off the holiday season. It was a blast!

Facilities

  • We completed a driveway from the road to our alpaca barn and are securing the materials to build a 60×64 post frame building next year for our animal training and workshops!

  • We have designed a permanent PfH SIGN which will be installed before we open again next year!

  • In addition, we are working to formalize our needs and wishlists on our website

Fundraising

  • There have been numerous Facebook fundraisers created by YOU in addition to direct donations in memory, in honor of birthdays and weddings, and monthly sponsoring of the care of specific animals here at the sanctuary

  • While our Spring Kickoff was a general outreach event, Our summer concert series to “Build the Barn” was a smaller effort this year with 4 shows total. The music was fantastic, the evenings were special, and the audiences were very generous in supporting us. We raised close to Three Thousand dollars toward building our barn.

  • We now have a GO FUND ME page https://gofund.me/5afb8f10 Please feel free to share in your networks so we spread the word further and further!

  • We have also created a wish list on Chewy – which you can check out by searching under the give back tab on their home page – with our main animal feed and treats, and will add supplies and other equipment as needed. We will post these links on our social media as well.

  • Last but not least, our holiday fundraiser will begin Thanksgiving week, and this year we have added note cards that are prints of hand painted cards by one of our volunteers, Sandy Brown. We have cards of each of our Donkeys, and each of our Pyrenees. We also have naturally hand dyed yarn in 4 beautiful shades. You can check our fundraising page under the How to Help tab at the top of the webpage.

If you are already involved, we thank you, we appreciate you, and we need you more than ever to keep caring for our animals and growing in our connections with PEOPLE!