Sunday 10 June 2012

Big Things in Belleville!

So I have come back home to Belleville and have been making many plans. Of course they include my return and eventual re-location to Ottawa, but there is a more present and pressing plan to be dealt with!

I have decided I want to become far more involved with my local charities and non-profit organizations. They are the people that make the world a much better place to live in, besides, after living off the system for enough time, you should give back.

I made the decision to give back by hosting a charity yard sale. It took me only a few minutes to figure out who I was going to support and why. My choice was evident almost from the start. I wanted to give the money I raised to an organization that spends all their time working for their cause... I immediately thought of the Humane Society. The people at Quinte Humane Society are amazingly hard working people and the fact that this is an organization that gives animals a second chance at a wonderful home, well, that hits home.

All my life I was taught by my family that animals were a privilege to have and that they were to be treated as any other family member. They should be afforded dignity and respect, and if you are going to bring an animal into your life, you should first make sure that that animal is going to be something you want forever. They are not part time and they love you unconditionally. I was always told to love them as the love me and thus I do.

However, this is not the case all the time. As evident by the broken and battered, homeless or neglected animals at Humane Societies around the world, many people view these creatures as entertainment, a right, a punching bag, a burden or even trash. The Humane Society takes in thousands of these poor innocent creatures every year, and try to find them loving FOREVER homes. Who could honestly argue that they are not deserving of the money I am going to raise?! Especially for those who have seen the QHS building, it is not in the best of shape and for what little they have they make do and still manage to care for lots of animals every year!

I am hoping to host my yard sale on Canada Day weekend and will be asking a number of different local places to contribute to our cause. Especially places like pet stores, vet offices and breeders. With any luck, I should find plenty of support in exchange for having their names placed onto a flyer showing they have contributed and possibly even having their name tossed around during the other advertising and interviews myself and my room-mate will be doing.

We are looking to have them contribute prizes, food/drinks, or even money to buy items we need for the sale. Hopefully a few of them will jump on board and give us gift certificates to their stores to use as prizes or even give us pet related prizes to hand out to the individuals that win them.

Marra and I have a whole 2 days planned out, and we have a number of things we would dearly love to see happen. Face painting for the kids for $1 was suggested and I suggested selling packages of cards for $0.50 a piece with a few winning cards in them. On idea I dearly loved was to have a kiddy pool with rubber duckies in it, and allow kids to "fish" for a rubber ducky with a toy fishing pole.... if they pull out a ducky with a certain colour on it they win a prize. It all sounds like great fun to have these games and I think it would really grab the adults attention if we were to give them some way to distract the kids while they shopped through the items.

We also wanted to offer baked good and refreshments like water, juice and pop. It would make it a lot easier for people to relax and enjoy themselves if they had something they could buy for cheap and nibble on.

So far it seems like everyone is really on board about this idea, and it appears to be coming together nicely. As long as we have enough money and donations to complete our tasks, everything should go perfect. I think our biggest challenge will be to find a place that will allow us to host. I plan on asking my work place as well as some local churches and schools. Maybe even contacting the City and asking if we could have a permit to use the park for free for a charity event.

I got in touch with a local designer about flyers this evening and I will give you a heads up on how this turns out... It's always good to have a back up plan, which in my case it to beg and plead until someone remotely artistically inclined agrees to do up a few example flyers for me to show to potential sponsors.

I will make sure to keep all of you updated as far as progress, advertising and ideas go!



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