Christmas Greyhound Gathering, Lancashire
Lucille Cavadino, 30/12/2008
Last Sunday saw a gathering of beautiful hounds at Wyre Estuary Country Park in Lancashire. These monthly events are always incredibly well attended but the Christmas walk was probably the most popular of all. The weather was perfect for dog walking and everyone decided it was time to walk off that extra mince pie!
We saw new friends join us as well as recently homed hounds out on their first gathering which is always a joy. It was also a great opportunity for everyone else to catch up on news and, of course, for the dogs to show off what Santa Paws had brought them!
We held a raffle among the humans and there were Christmas pudding biscuits for all the hounds at the end of the walk. On top of all that we made over £100 in our collecting bucket. What a lovely morning and a great way to round off the year.
See below some shots of the walk taken by our youngest greyhound friend and camera enthusiast, Alex Stone, age 9.
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Pets at Home, Bristol
Jackie Hilton, 26/12/2008
Flash flooding across Somerset and Bristol didnt stop volunteers and their dogs turning out to Pets @ Home, Eastgate retail park near Bristol on 13th December 2008.
Thankfully the weather was dry, although a little dull, by the time our collection started. Lots of people stopped to say hi to the dogs who were all dressed up for the festivities. As you can see from the photos everyone had a lovely time and looked great in their outfits.
Thank you to everyone who volunteered and supported us so generously - we made £357!
A special thanks too to the mangement and staff at Pets @ Home for all their support this year and for having us.
We have all enjoyed ourselves and look forward to seeing everyobody in 2009!
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Pets at Home - Exeter
Canny Judge, 14/12/2008
On Sunday 14th December we gathered at the Pets at Home store in Exeter for a collection and awareness day.
The weather was bitterly cold, but despite this and the fact that it was a Sunday, this did not deter Christmas shoppers and the whole retail park was extremely busy.
Once again the dogs were dressed in their wonderful Santa suits, hand made by kind volunteers, which served not only to give the day a lovely festive feel, but which also served the purpose of keeping the dogs really warm and snuggly whilst doing their bit to help less fortunate greyhounds and lurchers.
Thanks must go to all of the volunteers who braved the cold this weekend, the dogs who as always were the most fantastic ambassadors for the breed, those who helped to make such wonderful outfits for the dogs, to Pete the store manager and his staff for accommodating us, to Sue who turned up with a box of extremely tasty homemade cakes, and lastly but most definitely not the least, to the customers who visited Pets at Home and who gave so generously towards the cause. A total of £190.18 was raised.
This is the last event in Devon for this year, so I would like to take the opportunity to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and we will look forward to seeing you in the New Year.
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Honiton Street Collection
Canny Judge, 14/12/2008
On Saturday 13th December we held a street collection in Honiton. Thankfully the torrential rain that fell throughout the previous night stopped and lots of people were out and about doing their Christmas shopping.
There was a lovely festive spirit in the town and for an hour or so we had a group of carol singers standing next to us, which was really nice and cheery. As always the dogs looked fantastic in their Santa suits, and really sold themselves as wonderful dogs to have.
We collected a total of £310 which is brilliant, and had a huge amount of interest in greyhounds and keeping them as pets, so fingers crossed we may get a few more home offers out of the day as well.
Many, many thanks to all of the volunteers and their lovely dogs who came along and stood in the cold for a couple of hours, and a special thanks to the people and shoppers of Honiton who so gave so generously and who showed such a genuine interest in the work that we do.
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Greyhounds & Mulled Wine
Julie Williams, 11/12/2008
Forest of Dean on Sunday 7th December, we held a playgroup for the dogs and mulled wine and mince pies for the humans. We asked for donations and also held a raffle and sold some merchandise. It was a bit of an unknown quantity having never done it before.
We had a fantastic response – around 65 people came with 42 dogs, many more than expected. They came from all over the county, and some from outside Gloucestershire!
Susan Lang ran the playgroup for us and all the dogs had a fantastic time bombing around Newnham Equestrian Centre’s indoor school. Caz, who has recently adopted a dog from GRWE, manages the school and set it up for us. It was amazing to see so many dogs and there were several people who had only had their dogs around a week.
Having only been involved recently in doing home checks and homing, it was just so exciting to see the dogs settled into loving homes, and to feel that you had a small part to play, along with others, in making that happen.
We are hoping that we may get a regular group going in the Forest, and are planning a repeat big playgroup for next spring! We made around £340, so all in all a great success and a lot of fun!
Thanks to all those who helped us out, whether it was helping to set up, serving tea, coffee etc or making mince pies!
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Pets at Home - Exmouth
Canny Judge, 08/12/2008
...............and because we took so many lovely pictures of the dogs in their Christmassy outfits, here are a few more for you to see.
From left to right:
Sponsor dogs Heather & Poppy stay warm and cosy in their beautiful handmade snoods.
Kate says hello to one of Santa's little helpers!
Never mind the x-factor, greyhounds in Santa suits really have the ahh-factor!
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Pets at Home - Exmouth
Canny Judge, 08/12/2008
On Saturday 6th December we held a collection and awareness day at the newly opened Pets at Home store in Exmouth.
Despite it being extremely cold we chatted to a steady stream of interested people and with the dogs being dressed in their lovely Santa and Reindeer outfits it was hard not to feel really festive!
We collected a total of £80.27, so thank you to all of the volunteers and their trusty hounds who braved the cold for a couple of hours and to Nick Duckett and his staff for allowing us to collect outside of the store.
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Pampurred Pets collection Shepton Mallet
Jackie Hilton, 07/12/2008
On Saturday 29th November we had our first collection and awareness day at Pampurred Pets in Shepton Mallet and what a lovely welcome we got from the staff and from the public!
It was really cold but the dogs were all double-wrapped in santa suits. Everyone stopeed to say hello - and how could anyone resist?!
We raised £275.40 which was wonderful and made it all worthwhile.
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Wells collection 6 December
Jackie Hilton, 07/12/2008
Would we be sploshing about in rain or freezing our toes? Nobody knew as we prepared for our Christmas collection in Wells, Somerset on Saturday 6th December.
As it happened, we did neither as the sun shone beautifully and we all had a lovely day with lots of dogs and volunteers.
The market was busy all day and we met some wonderful people - and with all the dogs dressed up nobody could resist saying hello to them.
We collected £985 which was excellent!
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Sainsbury's Worcester Collection
Helen Mills, 05/12/2008
Last Friday and Saturday several hardy volunteers and their equally hardy hounds spent time fundraising outside Sainsbury’s in Worcester. We thought Friday was COLD but Saturday was EVEN COLDER!! Gloves didn’t seem to make much difference to my frozen fingers.
It was well worth our efforts though, as we came home with just over £584. I wonder how much we would have made had it been a gloriously warm sunny day? Or was it that shoppers took pity on us?
We are very lucky to have a volunteer/owner who is just a whiz at making dog jackets.
Thanks Sharon the outfits drew many admiring comments and glances.
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Poulton Street Collection, Lancashire
Lucille Cavadino, 04/12/2008
Last Saturday saw us collecting for the first time in the lovely little town of Poulton-le-Fylde on what was probably the coldest day of the year so far at -2 degrees C with thick fog. We were not very hopeful of a good turnout given the appalling conditions (together with the distances some of our volunteers were travelling) but our fantastic team did not let us down.
Believe it or not, we stuck it out for the whole day (looking back I’m not sure how) with piles of clothes on and the dogs in double coats and we raised £507 which was fantastic for a small town and made it all worthwhile.
People were besotted with the greyhounds in their outfits, particularly of course the children, and lots of leaflets and information was given out so, hopefully, some of that will bear fruit.
See photos below for the awww factor – the other wonderful thing is that all the dogs that were there on the day had been homed by the Lancashire region so we were proudly able to tell people that they too could have a dog like ours!!
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GRWE chills out in Salisbury!
Michelle Haley, 02/12/2008
Last Saturday GRWE volunteers took to the streets of Salisbury, Wilts to tell folk all about greyhounds, and what fabulous pets they make.........
It was a bit parky to say the least but that all added to the Christmassy atmosphere! As a bonus, the volunteers managed to raise a total of raised £181.50.
If you are able to help out with some of our collecting days then please do get in touch.
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Somerset Quiz night
Somerset team, 29/11/2008
The Somerset team held a quiz night to raise some money for Leggit the Lurcher's vets bill. You will remember that this little chap had a broken back which has now been fixed ~ and the vets bill is £2k!
We held our event at the Cabot Bar in Western Super Mare, and it was really well supported, with 10 teams of people pitting their wits against each other!
Lots of fun and hilarity was had, and there was alot of friendly rivalry between the teams, which all added to the party atmosphere. As well as having fun of course, we raised £200 towards Leggits' vets bill.
Many thanks to all who supported us, Liz and Jess who organised the event, Mark the quizmaster, and of course to the pub who hosted the venue.
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Saunders Garden World
Liz Rodgers, 28/11/2008
We held a very successful collection at Saunders Garden World in Somerset last weekend raising £393.73 over the two days. Lots of interest in the greyhounds and all in all a good weekend despite the very cold weather. Thanks to everyone who helped out.
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Events Update From Herts.
Kelli Windebank, 28/11/2008
Quiz - Well it’s been a fantastic week in our area. We had our quiz night on Wednesday for Leggit. We had a great time, Mark did a fantastic time of putting a fun quiz together and we raised £350 but with a very generous donation from Graham we raised this to £400!!! We will be repeating this as it is a much warmer and fun way of raising money in the winter!!!
Collections - On Saturday we had double collection days in Herts. - I sent one team off to Letchworth where they managed to collect £197 in the pots! We stayed in Hitchin (outside Starbucks!) It was such a cold day but people were so interested in seeing us - lots of people starting to recognise us now which is great, still get the odd - but we live up here and you’re West of England. I’m always as surprised as they are when I say I live in Hitchin!!!
Hitchin collection bought in £348 which is just fab and makes all the freezing and scoffing mince pies and hot chocolate worth it!!!
Luton Today - A couple of weeks ago 2 reporters went to Graham Cricks house and interviewed him for the Luton Today. A couple of days later we were asked to put a video report together. Here you can see Grahams interview and the video.... highly embarrassing but I hope you all enjoy x
http://www.lutontoday.co.uk/todays-choice/VIDEO-Trust-them-to-help.4705406.jp
Collection Days Herts
Gulie Butcher, 25/11/2008
Beds and Herts successfully pulled off another double hander last Saturday. In Letchworth the star attractions were Orla, the Saluki pup, (checking out if she’s still Claire’s double) and Paige and Pippa all rehomed by GRWE in 2008. Of course the trusty van transported kennel dogs with Mark at the wheel. In Hitchin, Kelli rallied troops with a Starbucks and hounds were wrapped up in bed. Mabel and Raffy top and toed then Mabel decided to use Sophie as a sofa. Senna displayed the gentle calm of greyhounds and never complained about the cold, scoring victories with half of Kelli’s muffin and the odd bit of sausage roll. The outcome from the day was very good. There were serious home enquiries and comments from the public indicate that education about the greyhound situation is getting through. Graham Crick was on hand to dispel any myths. A total collection of £545.50, definitely made it worth a few hours in the chill cabinet!
Hitchin Leggit Pub Quiz
Gulie Butcher, 21/11/2008
There was much laughter at the Anchor Public House in Hitchin, on Wednesday, November 19 when the Beds and Herts Branch and their supporters held a Quiz Night for Leggit. Question Master, Mark kept everyone happy and Claire’s marking of the answers ensured the evening going at a good pace. With ticket sales, the raffle, sale of Louise’s homemade cake and the generous donation of the table buffet by the publican, the total made was a very pleasing £350. There was a general, ‘When’s the next one?’ at the end of the evening.
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Christmas Coffee Morning in Bodmin
Sue Fowler, 21/11/2008
Saturday 15th November was our Annual Christmas Coffee Morning. It dawned grey and misty I began to think it might be a bit of wipe-out. Thankfully I was wrong and our little house was buzzing with lovely doggy people, mainly greys of course.
Thanks to Sue and Anthea for manning the kitchen and keeping everyone supplied with tea, coffee and delicious home made cakes, which went down very well, thanks to Rosemary for doing the Raffle. Everyone seemed to have a good time, there were some new faces and an offer of fostering - so all in all a good day, best of all we made £360.00.
The dogs behaved impeccably with the exception of Ollie who thought everyone should have the pleasure of feeding him cakes!!
A very Festive Fair
Jan Lake, 20/11/2008
Last Sunday saw a small Somerset village awash with greyhounds and their owners.........all celebrating Christmas early!
This years Christmas Fair at Edington was a huge success and was very well attended. It was a great chance to catch up with friends old and new, over a cup of tea and a mince pie. There was a great array of stalls ranging from Bowen Therapy to Dog Beds and Mince Pies to Hand crafted cards, so a great choice for Christmas presents! A fabulous choice of goodies were on sale in the kitchen and there was no chance of going hungry!
Some of the kennel dogs came out for the day and entered in to the Christmas spirit by donning their santa outfits and meeting their public. The Somerset team had taken delivery of their new (new to them) van the day before which was kitted out with 6 cages, so the dogs travelled in style. Molly went off to her new home that day, and Daisy-Do and Mick met their new mum and dad at the fair, and will be collected this coming weekend.
All the hard work and planning which went into making this day a success really paid off, as we raised over £1,000, which was a tremendous amount, and will help towards our enormous vet bills.
It was lovely to see everybody, and a big thank you to everyone who helped to make the day run so smoothly. See you next year!
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Crewkerne Street Collection
Jackie, 19/11/2008
When we arrived in Crewkerne to do our street collection it was very quiet and freezing cold. It got busier though and people were really nice, taking the time to stop and chat, but after two hours we called it a day - the dogs could not stand it any longer and neither could we! Still, we made £116,03 which, for two hours, was very good.
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Street Collection in Chippenham
Michelle Haley, 18/11/2008
Just to thank everyone who helped at the street collection in Chippenham on Saturday 15th November. A grand total of £235 was raised and a couple of promising home offers were received.
Next Wiltshire collection is in Salisbury on Saturday 29th November.
Greyhound Gathering, Blackburn, Lancashire
Lucille Cavadino, 17/11/2008
We held our incredibly popular monthly greyhound gathering and walk last weekend at Witton Country Park in Blackburn. What a great day this turned out to be ….
The weather was absolutely wonderful – just perfect for a dog walk. Lots of new friends came to join us and swell our numbers and spread the GRWE word even further into darkest Lancashire! and the local press arrived to take our photos and hopefully give some good publicity to our lovely greyhounds. As if that wasn’t enough we had some serious homing interest as a result of our presence and we made £71.53 in the bucket – which is a new record for our monthly gatherings.
See us posing for the local press below plus a couple of shots of some of the good looking hounds that were there on the day.
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Nostalgia Night in Blackpool
Lucille Cavadino, 15/11/2008
Well, our first attempt at an evening fundraiser without the greyounds in tow was a great success. We had a good turn out and lots of enthusiasm – and some of us could be seen channelling the 1960s on the night (you didn’t think we always dressed like that, did you??)
We had raffles, games and a caption competition which showed what vivid (and in some cases, filthy!!) imaginations everyone had plus lots of dancing and singing.
We made a clear profit of £360 for the greyhounds which was fantastic. The Garden Place would love to have us back and have a few suggestions of the kind of nights we could have so keep watching the Events Diary for details of a repeat performance with a different theme.
Because we have no shame, I am prepared to include the photos below!!!
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An evening with Clifford WI
Alison Fuller, 13/11/2008
Clifford WI - On Monday 10th November, I tried my hand at public speaking!!!! Clifford WI kindly invited me to speak before them about the work of GRWE and the issues we face....and, somewhat foolishly, invited Poppy and Mickie along too! The dogs were the centre of attention and sold themselves, true ambassadors for their breed, someone even commented that I need not speak, just let the dogs do the sales pitch!!!!
The wood laminate floor in the hall provided some amusement - Mickie trod very gingerly at first, doing his ice skating on four paws bit! Poppy preferred to run at full tilt repeatedly up and down the hall, tail wagging furiously, before throwing herself to the ground and sliding!!! One kind lady brought dog treats which Poppy enjoyed, although Mickie prefered going fro lady to lady barking for chocolate biscuits!
the ladies were very interested in the plight of the hundreds and thousands of 'throw away' greyhounds, and listened intently to my talk, asking many questions throughout.
A big thanks to Clifford WI for giving us this opportunity, for their kind donation and for a very enjoyable evening.
Christmas has arrived in Lancashire
Lucille Cavadino, 11/11/2008
Well, Christmas has truly arrived in Lancashire – if you are in any doubt, check out the photos below!!
We had our first visit and serious experiment at the annual event held at a local Garden Centre where Father Christmas arrives by helicopter to a waiting throng of excited children.
I “encouraged” the garden centre into allowing us to have a stand on the basis that we would make excellent helpers for Santa and told all the children that the greyhounds were standing in for the reindeer who were resting in time for Christmas Eve (amazingly they seemed to believe me!)
We had a good day and were very well received by all the children and parents – they were queuing up to take photos of their kids with our greyhounds. Our children’s lucky dip and tombola were a particular success and we got quite a good contribution in the tins as well. We also had our photos taken with the Mayors of Blackpool and Fylde which was lovely.
We had a good amount of homing interest so fingers crossed on that. All the greyhounds were absolutely marvellous with the children – these dogs are amazing – and they also had to cope at times with the resident cat who wanted to hang out with us!
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Kempston Meet and Greet
Gulie Butcher, 10/11/2008
It was a rather chilly group of volunteers who gathered outside Pets at Home at Kempston Retail Park, Beds., on Sunday, November 9.
Braving the elements was Jake whose very special story is told in the book written by Jane Goldsmith who has generously donated the proceeds to GRWE. (To obtain a copy send your contact details and a cheque for £7.25 to 9, Adams Close, Ampthill MK45 2UB).
Wrapped up in bright GRWE jackets were kennel hounds Buster and Pepper who were joined by foster hounds, Freddie, Sophie, Raff and tripod Hal.
GRWE rehomed hounds Emmy, Martha, Colin, Ernie, Coco and Dolly swelled the ranks.
It was a busy shopping venue and the tins collected £107.
There was a lot of positive engagement from shoppers and a few homing enquiries.
Thanks to Ems for organising it, it’s definitely a venue to revisit, and to Pets at Home, once again, for having us on their doorstep.
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Pets at Home, Preston Welcomes GRWE
Lucille Cavadino, 10/11/2008
We had our second visit to Pets at Home in Preston at the weekend and did even better than the first time! People were incredibly supportive and interested in the greyhounds and we made £250 in the tin, which in the current climate is magnificent. We also made a new greyhound friend who came down especially to see us and had a couple of serious sounding homing offers. All in all, well worth it but then it had to be because, oh boy, was it cold!!
See Bouncer and Houdini working the relaxed look and ensuring that they blocked the doorway sufficiently so that no-one could miss us.
And how’s this for double trouble …. The family already had Tip from another organisation but spotted River on the GRWE website and had to have him – I know you shouldn’t choose by looks but the boys get on like a house on fire and are the best of mates and come to all our events to flummox people!!
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Pets at Home - Exeter
Canny Judge, 09/11/2008
On Saturday 8th November we held a collection and awareness day at Pets at Home in Exeter. We raised a total of £168.06 in our collecting tins which is fantastic for this time of year when people are watching their pennies in the lead up to Christmas.
Huge thanks to all of our brilliant volunteers and their wonderful dogs, who always do us so proud and have to endure the ever worsening weather conditions that seem to go hand in hand with collections at this time of year. We couldn't do it without you!
Thanks too must go to Pets at Home for allowing us to collect at their stores, and of course to all of their customers who so generously help to fill our collecting tins. Many people say that they wish that they could afford to give more, but believe me every penny helps and you are really helping to make a difference to the lives of all of the beautiful dogs that are in our care.
Braving the Elements for the Greyhounds!
Fran Brown, 05/11/2008
Sat 1st Nov:
At very short notice we were offered a chance to have a collection day at our local Wyevale Garden Centre in Hereford. This was too good an offer to refuse, so a few phone calls later and I was able to find willing volunteers to attend throughout the day - thanks to everyone who helped out at such short notice and on such a bitterly cold day. We were all bundled up in our winter woollies and the dogs were cosy in a double layer of coats!
We had quite a successful day, raising £184.69 - I think people were taking pity on us stood out in the cold! We finally gave in at about 3.00pm when we had long lost any feeling in our extremities!
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Colyton Meet, Greet & Social Walk
Canny Judge, 15/10/2008
Back in September, we held a meet, greet & walk starting at the Town Hall in Colyton. The day was a huge success with over 100 people and 50 dogs turning up, many of which were greyhound and lurchers that have been homed in Devon over the past year or so.
We met at the hall at 12 noon and were lucky to be blessed with a truly beautiful day. Walkers and dogs set of in groups to take the walk through fields and lanes following alongside the beautiful river Coly. It was a wonderful sight to see so many greyhounds in one place at any one time and I don’t think that the usually quiet village on a Sunday knew quite what was going on!
After an hour or so when walkers returned to the hall with very tired dogs, everyone enjoyed tea, cakes and a good old greyhound gossip, whilst merchandise was sold and a raffle was drawn. In total we took £479.80 in donations, raffle, tombola and merchandise sales, and had two home offers so we were really thrilled. Lots of people who attended were relatively new & some first time greyhound owners so it was also a great opportunity to chat about their dogs and get advice from the more experienced GRWE hound owners who were there. I think perhaps though the highlight of the day was seeing so many of the dogs again who have been recently been homed looking so well and happy with their new owners.
Huge thanks to everyone who came along to support this event. Hope to see you all again in Colyton next year!
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