60 Volunteers Equals
One Clean Barn
February 28, 2009: Around 60
volunteers arrived at 9 AM to clean out a massive amount of trash
from the barn behind the Rogue Valley Humane Society.
RVHS shelter manager, Margaret
Varner said, "With the state of the economy it's just been
crazy. We've seen so many animals coming in. We have people calling
for horses, cows, and chickens and we simply don't have room
for them--yet."
The old wooden barn was cleared
out in under 3 hours filling two giant dumpsters donated by Allied
Waste Services with some 10 tons of junk and trash.
Varner says, "Rome wasn't
built in a day". But some animals are one day closer to
finding a home.
There's still a lot of work to
be done at the Humane Society. Varner says that can only be done
with volunteers and donations. If you would like to help getting
the barn ready so animals might have a home or help with the
current shelter contact the Humane Society in Grants Pass at
(541) 479-5154.
The Clean Forest Project headed
the cleanup at the barn. They also need help cleaning up Southern
Oregon. To see their next scheduled projects you can visit their
website at http://www.cleanforestproject.org/
The RVHS would like to thank
all the great folks who came out to make this happen along with
the Dutch Bros for donating plenty of their great coffee, the
Train Depot Restaurant for supplying lunch and KTVL TV for their
coverage.
Pictures don't really
do the extent of the project justice. This barn was a MESS!
KTVL Cannel 10 News reporter
Natalee Morales came out to cover the event and did a great job
of getting footage and interviews which included a nice spot
with shelter manager,
Margaret Varner.
The shelter got some great
exposure when KTVL used the report as the lead story on their
6 and 11 O'clock News programs.
The end result was dramatic.
The shelter now has a starting point for the long range plan
to be able to take in large animals.
Just a few of the
volunteers celebrating a job well done.
We invite the public to come
out and visit the barn project and our remodeled small animal
shelter. All this is done with the support of the good folks
who care about the quality of life for God's creatures and there
is no such thing as too much help.
It would also be beneficial for
projects like this to get support from insurance companies like
Norwich
Union and other possible support groups like animal rights
camps.