Melplash Show
Liz Baker, 01/09/2010
The day before the show comprised rain and more rain. Thank you to Trudy and Gina who helped erect the gazebo after work the evening before the show - in the pouring rain. Would we all disappear in thick mud on show day?
The rain had reduced to a fine misty drizzle by first dawn on show morning.
On my way to the show with all the gear, driving through the murky low cloud, I noticed steam coming from the car’s engine – never an encouraging sight.
All I can say is thank you Maddy for all your help (and thank goodness for mobile phones). The AA man was very helpful too and my car, who picked his moment to let me down gets his new radiator the day after the bank holiday.
The rain stopped and the show ground did not descend into mud. Crowds were slow to appear at the show and seemed to go home fairly early but we had a very busy time in the middle-bit. There were lots of promising conversations with would-be greyhound owners. A local lady gave us a big bagful of greyhound coats, leads etc for the kennel dogs. Our total was £224 so a little disappointing but we did chat to a lot of nice, interested people (including a local WI lady who would like us to do a talk next year).
Thanks to Danielle (&Topaz), Pete, Nicola, Thomas (&Otto and Harry), John and Diane (& Gracie) – for all their hard work.
Extra thanks to Gina who stayed all day so she could take me home. As mentioned before thank you Maddy (Taylor) who was a hero; it is bad enough getting in and out of a show ground once in a day but Maddy had to do it three times!
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Lustleigh Show
Canny Hart, 01/09/2010
On Bank Holiday Monday we attended a show set in the beautiful village of Lustleigh on the edge of Dartmoor. Lustleigh Show truly has one of the most beautiful show settings that we have ever had the pleasure of being in. It is set in fields surrounded by the most beautiful countryside, and to top it all the sun shone brightly, all day!
At lunchtime we had the privilege of being asked to do a greyhound parade in one of the rings giving us the perfect opportunity to spend 15 minutes talking about the work of GRWE and the plight of greyhounds. Lesley and Tony did a great job on the PA whilst Jo, Mary, Dave, Chris, Helen & Ellie paraded their happy and homed dogs for the people watching. We would have liked to have taken along some of the kennel dogs for the parade but sadly our van broke down a couple of days earlier and despite having managed to squeeze everything into Christine’s van so that we could at least still attend the show there was definitely no room afterwards to fit in any dogs let alone those the size of greyhounds!
We thoroughly enjoyed the show and the wonderful atmosphere that it always offers. The dogs as always received plenty of attention and volunteers spent the day chatting with people interested in the work that we do and those who are considering keeping a greyhound as a pet in the future.
We raised a total of £263.41, so thank you to the show organisers for allowing us to attend their wonderful show again this year, to the people of Lustleigh who gave so generously to the cause and last but most definitely not least to the volunteers and their hounds for giving up their Bank Holiday to come along and help to raise more much needed funds for GRWE without whom it would not be possible to attend as many events in Devon as we do at this time of year.
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Keynsham Street Collection Saturday 28th August
Josh & Sarah Harris, 31/08/2010
We headed off to Keynsham bright and early on Saturday morning for a 9am start!
There were already lots of people about when we arrived and lots of interest in Martha & Stormy as soon as we arrived. We were soon joined by our ever helpful volunteers who did a great job as always.
We had a very busy day and raised a fantastic £290.67!
Sorry there are no photos this time but we were too busy!
Thank you to everyone who helped on the day.
Accrington (Lancashire) Street Collection
Claire Mason, 31/08/2010
Saturday 28th August
Our Local Events Volunteers - First Collection and boy did they get started with a bang! Over to them ......
Accrington (Lancashire) Street Collection
Well the sun shone for all of about 15 minutes and then we had to dive for cover, but despite the awful weather and thanks to the help of Bev, Chris and Frances, Pat and Ken and Rik and their gorgeous hounds and not forgetting Claire for pointing us in the right direction, and of course the generosity of the people of Accrington our mini collection made £402.
We had a tremendous amount of re homing interest and when we were actually sorting out the permit for the collection a lady in the office , who already has two greyhounds expressed an interest in re homing an elderly dog later in the year ,so fingers crossed.
Well worth getting wet for
Anne, Norman, Finn and Oona
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Lancashire Sponsored Walk and Fun Day
Claire Mason, 31/08/2010
Sunday 22nd August
Wow what a difference a year makes; the weather was great and it made life so much easier. This was a really busy event with lots of going on. The biggest and best GRWE stall I have ever seen meant lots of opportunities for shopping which we all made the most of. The pick and mix dog toy box was a favourite amongst the hounds with them sticking their noses in to pick their toy. We enforced the ‘you try you buy’ rule here and made a killing! Poor greyhound owners!
Prior to setting off on the sponsored walk Lucille hosted a Kennel Dog Parade with one theme in mind ‘If you can see the floor; then there is room for more’ Lucille introduced each dogs whilst they were paraded. The ow’s and ah’s from the crowd gathered even more people and as a result one greyhound found a new sister.
Our sponsored walk was huge this year with over 100 dogs taking part. There were greyhounds as far as the eye could see – absolute haven. Just take a look at these pictures. Sponsorship money brought in £848 and is still rising. I am confident that we will hit the £900 mark once it is all collected.
The stall, tombola’s and raffle raised the superb total of £1090.55 giving us a grand total of £1938.55.
What a great day, we had fun, the sun shined, we re-homed and raised a bucket load of money –perfect x
You can see a short video of the event at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fe5HXaDJWI
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The Melplash Show
Liz Baker, 30/08/2010
The Melplash Show - near Bridport, Dorset on 26th August 2010.
The day before the show comprised rain and more rain. Thank you to Trudy and Gina who helped erect the gazebo after work the evening before the show - in the pouring rain. Would we all disappear in thick mud on show day?
The rain had reduced to a fine misty drizzle by first dawn on show morning.
On my way to the show with all the gear, driving through the murky low cloud, I noticed steam coming from the car’s engine – never an encouraging sight.
All I can say is thank you Maddy for all your help (and thank goodness for mobile phones). The AA man was very helpful too. My car, who picked his moment to let me down gets his new radiator the day after the bank holiday.
The rain stopped and the show ground did not descend into mud. Crowds were slow to appear at the show and seemed to go home fairly early but we had a very busy time in the middle-bit. There were lots of promising conversations with would-be greyhound owners. A local lady gave us a big bagful of greyhound coats, leads etc for the kennel dogs. Our total was £224 so a little disappointing but we did chat to a lot of nice, interested people (including a local WI lady who would like us to do a talk next year).
Thanks to Danielle (&Topaz), Pete, Nicola, Thomas (&Otto and Harry), John and Diane (& Gracie) – for all their hard work.
Extra thanks to Gina who stayed all day so she could take me home. As mentioned before thank you Maddy (Taylor) who was a hero; it is bad enough getting in and out of a show ground once in a day but Maddy had to do it three times!
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Wells Collection
Rob & Fliss Voisey, 23/08/2010
Wells Street Collection
Saturday 21st August 2010
Paula and Jackie were up bright and early for this collection!
The weather threatened all day and it was hot and muggy but it didn't ever break which kept the numbers high.
Over all a great day with lots of homing interest and we collected the amazing amount of
£488
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Frodsham Summer Fair & Dog Show
Lindsay Ford, 22/08/2010
We had a fantastic day at the Frodsham Summer Fair and Dog Show 2010, it was a true summer fair extravaganza with dog shows, displays, fairground games and many trade stalls. All in all it was a really great day and we were incredibly lucky with the weather, only a very light shower in the morning and the sun even managed to make an appearance in the afternoon! The attendance was just under 600 people at last count which included many happily homed GRWE hounds as well as some prospective new homes and to top it all off, we made an incredible £3,250 with yet more still coming in from the photography so we are anticipating the final amount raised to be around £3,500!! So congratulations everybody, this is our best ever amount for the Cheshire region and approx £1,300 more than we raised last year!
Huge special thanks to all the volunteers that helped out, this really would not be possible without all your support so thank you. Also a big thank you to everyone who made the beautiful cakes and made donations of prizes with a special thank you to Nestle Purina. And finally a big thank you to Pat Senior for all her contributions and for making the dog show such a great success.
Plans are already underway for next year so SAVE THE DATE - GRWE Frodsham Summer Fair and Dog Show 2011 – 13th August 2011, don’t miss it!
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Walk, meet & greet at Shillingstone, Dorset
Liz Baker, 20/08/2010
Not a huge turnout for this event at a more quirky location – the preserved railway station in the village of Shillingstone. Bob Smith who is a GRWE volunteer and owner of ‘Kae’ (to be found snoozing on the platform on most fine days) gave me this idea as he is a volunteer at the Station. I hope we will return next year, there are good facilities and some lovely walking country.
In order not to get writer’s-block twice this week I am going to cheat and ‘cut and paste’ the article I sent to the local paper – the Western Gazette:
“Supporters and volunteers of Greyhound Rescue West of England (GRWE) met at the Shillingstone Station Project on Sunday morning 15 August. Following a lovely circular walk to Fiddleford Mill in perfect weather conditions, hounds and walkers enjoyed refreshments from the station shop. The restored station platform provided an atmospheric setting for relaxing and enjoying some ‘greyhound chat’ before the journey home. Two of the charity’s greyhounds (Caramel and Fergie), currently waiting for a home, enjoyed an outing from their kennels; both were perfectly behaved and deserve to find good, caring homes.
The event provided a chance for some of Dorset’s rescue greyhounds (and lurchers) to meet up and helped to raise awareness to the plight of these gentle dogs. The raffle and collecting tin raised some much needed funds for the charity.
GRWE is grateful to the Shillingstone Station Project volunteers for their help and co-operation. A passion for greyhounds and a passion for the railway formed an unlikely partnership that proved mutually beneficial. GRWE volunteers look forward to holding another event in 2011 and will be interested to see how the Station Project has progressed.
For more information about both charities, visit: www.grwe.com and www.shillingstone.addr.com”
The raffle, quiz, collection and cakes raised £45. I took the surplus cakes into work the next morning to sell to my gannet colleagues, which helped boost the above figure by £7.50.
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Southsea Street Collection
Corinne Harris, 17/08/2010
Val plus Sarah, Steve and Jane and accompanied by the ever lovely Cash, Nick, Leah, Beth and the increasingly famous Louie whippet!
It was Farmers Market day so they managed to capture the crowd and raised £246.43 plus of course lots of interest in our cause.
Well done everyone on a great weekend for the Hampshire Team!
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Newbury Street Collection
Corinne Harris, 17/08/2010
14 August
Val and Sue P attended with some of their gorgeous hounds in the shape of Rooba, Topaz and Chief.
Newbury isn’t a particularly large town and these two fabulous ladies with just three hounds collected the amazing amount of £462.77 and had some great rehoming interest as well.
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Burley Street Collection
Corinne Harris, 16/08/2010
7 August
Myself, Val and Phylly together with 6 of our hounds were in the very small and picturesque village of Burley in the New Forest.
It's a tourist hot spot and we had rehoming interest from many areas of the UK.
It was a day of sunshine and showers so there was lots of dashing about getting beds, dogs and ourselves out of the rain so in the end we resorted to putting up the beach shelter!
The local shop owners were fantastic and we took home £121.92
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Collection & Awareness Day, Porton - 14th Aug
Michele Way, 15/08/2010
Well what a brilliant place. Following a very warm welcome by the manager Gareth, we were given a spot inside as the weather was absolutely atrocious. As we settled ourselves in there was a steady flow of people in and out of the centre. Lots of people stopping by to say hello and fuss over the dogs, all of whom behaved in an exemplary way throughout the day. Fortunately the early afternoon saw an improvement in the weather and we were able to go outside and settle ourselves and the dogs in the sun, when it finally managed to peek out from behind the clouds! Solo and Gaia were brilliant examples of "look how laid back they are" as they remained horizontal for the entire afternoon.
Thanks go to Roly and Lis, Jan with Blaze, Rina and David with Jago and Mollie (who is so sweet), Frances and Terry with Oscar Charlie (tripod), Laddie and Rebel and finally Andrea and her husband with their foster, Walter. We also had a visit from Moura with Win, whom she adopted only 4 months ago and who is a very dainty little black girl.
The good folks of Salisbury popped their hands in their pockets to the tune of £108.97, for which we are extremely grateful, and a big thank you to the little girl and the lady who gave us dog treats. Huge thanks too to the lady who purchased £10 worth of raffle tickets. We also had some very good homing and sponsorship enquiries so fingers crossed we get results from those. The afternoon ended with a huge monsoon of a downpour which we all just managed to escape and in all the excitement I only took one photograph which is a bit rubbish really as at one point we had 7 dogs!! Sorry folks, will try harder next time
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Lanivet Horse & Dog Show
Anthea Dove, 14/08/2010
Saturday,7th August - We had a very quiet day at Wadebridge, once we had erected the gazebo in the rain and strong wind!
The number of people visiting the show was down from last year and it was mainly stall-holders supporting each other.
We were visited by Earl, Sacha, Bracken and their owners.
We took £61.50 in merchandise and £16.47 in donations and tombola.
Thank you to our stalwarts - Sue, Reg, Sue and Bevis and my Maisie and Beth.
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Okehampton Show
Canny Hart, 14/08/2010
On Thursday 12th August we had another very early start to drive to Okehampton Show. However, we were grateful that although slightly overcast and cloudy we didn’t have any rain which is always pleasing!
We were lent a hand for a couple of hours by Sue & Reg Fowler and Sue Hicks who had come up from Cornwall. Thank you Sue H for the lovely cakes which we thoroughly enjoyed!
One of the highlights of the day was when we were visited by Dale (with no tail) now named Duke, a lovely BBB (big, black, boy) who we homed earlier in the year. He looked very happy with life and his new family who clearly dote on him and was the perfect reminder as to why we spend so much of our spare time doing what we do!
We enjoyed a busy day at the show with plenty of interest in keeping greyhounds as pets. We raised a total of £414.75 a massive £162.55 up on last years show despite the fact that we are in the middle of a recession and everyone is watching their pennies.
We also had two definite home offers from people that left their details with Christine and at least another four families who took leaflets and who were heading home to look at our website with the intention of contacting us about homing a dog over sometime over the next couple of days.
So a brilliant result and all credit to my volunteers and their hounds for yet another sterling effort.
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Tesco Extra Horwich, 7th and 8th August
Claire Mason, 10/08/2010
This weekend saw us collecting on both Saturday and Sunday outside this very busy store in Horwich. The wonderful hounds in attendance did what they do best and stole the show with their laid back temperaments and doleful eyes (honestly we don't train them to look so cute!) Hardly surprising that we had some positive homing interest; lets hope our homing team's telephone will be ringing.
One moment in particular stood out for me this weekend - a young girl came over with her Mum; she was extremely hesitant however without any prompting began to pet the dogs and of course they were completely settled and looked the girl gently in the eye. Mum just couldn't believe it as she explained that her daughter had been receiving support for a severe phobia of dogs and was still 'terrified'. What a wonderful testament to the nature of the dogs that we are honoured to have in our lives.
We raised the superb total of £1139.88 ! Well done everyone and thank you to Tesco's for having us.
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Pets at Home Bristol Saturday 7th August
Josh & Sarah Harris, 09/08/2010
Stormy was his usual excited self as we loaded the van for Saturday's collection. It absolutely tipped down on the way there but luckily we were under cover where we were collecting.
Upon arrival I realised I had forgotten the dog treats so took Martha & Stormy in to buy some. Martha decided she would repay our hosts kindness by leaving a big puddle in the middle of the store!
We had a very busy day and in between talking to lots of interested people even managed to rescue an American bulldog and return it to its worried owner. It had decided to go shopping in Halfords on its own!
We raised a total of £137.90. Thank you to everyone who helped on the day.
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Honiton Show
Canny Hart, 07/08/2010
On Thursday 5th August the GRWE Devon team attended Honiton Show.
Having put up the marquee in howling winds the evening before although another early start on the show morning we were pleased to find that the wind had dropped and the tent was still standing and so were able to enjoy a leisurely start to the day by frying up some bacon on the little stove that we have in the back of van and enjoying a bacon butty!
Our three dogs that were waiting patiently in their cages in the van for the show to get underway also enjoyed a piece of bacon each to get the day underway.
The weather was kind to us staying dry and we enjoyed the perfect day really being not too hot or too cold. The dogs enjoyed meeting and greeting a steady stream of people who as always gave them plenty of fuss and cuddles, not to mention the odd treat or two.
We raised a total of £296.61, and having picked up three definite and very promising home offers too I think that despite being in a slightly less prominent pitch than the previous year and despite it being more noticeable that people were less willing this year to part their hard earned cash we had a very successful day and will look forward to attending again in 2011.
So that just leaves me to say once again a massive thanks to Devon volunteers and their wonderful hounds for their continued efforts and support of GRWE. The amount of events that we attend to promote the work of GRWE and keeping greyhounds as pets in Devon throughout the summer months couldn’t be done without them. They are all amazing and should be justly proud of their achievements.
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Pets at Home Hereford
Fran Brown, 07/08/2010
On Saturday 31st July we were back at Pets at Home Hereford; the weather was much kinder to us than our last visit - just before Christmas last year - when it was below freezing all day!
We set up just after 9.00 and ,after a quiet start, had a steady stream of people stopping by all day to meet the dogs and have a chat.
We all had a pleasant (but tiring) day and raised a very respectable £167.04. Many thanks to all who came along to help; Di & Paul with Ginger, Ann with Bally and Val, Ronni & Stuart with Reece, Sheena and Mia.
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Dorset County Canine Society Summer Show
Liz Baker, 07/08/2010
We were grateful to be offered a free pitch at this Kennel Club breed show. The sun shone and we enjoyed a friendly day in the lovely grounds of the college. Those attending the show were mostly competitors with their family and friends so we weren’t rushed off our feet but raised £113 and had one serious adoption enquiry.
Thank you to Sheron and Bryan for suggesting we apply for a stand and for all their help (both very busy on the day in the secretary’s tent and stewarding).
Thanks goes to the Team: Trudy, Natalie, Ann, Kevin, Cath, Danielle, Pete and Nicola (+ their wonderful hounds). Not forgetting Jane and Steve from the Hants Team who were staying in the College's Caravan Club field.
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Barbeque at Tehidy
Anthea Dove, 07/08/2010
Despite the Cornish drizzle we had a very successful barbeque at the home of Sue and John Kelly.
The dining table was laden with delicious food and the 16 dogs played happily in the garden. Newly adopted Sacha, with Helen and Paul, and Becky (Judy) with Pam and Abi attended their 1st GRWE event.A surprise birthday cake was consumed by all of us.
We raised £67 and sold £106.40 of merchandise.
A very big thank you to Sue and John for providing the venue and all of the food.
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Warminster Street Collection
Michele Way, 02/08/2010
Our first collection in the busy market town of Warminster went extremely well. The weather was kind, started off pretty hot but clouded over for the afternoon, so dogs and people remained comfortable!
Following a busy morning the afternoon footfall dropped off but we met lots of interesting people throughout the day who generously gave what they could. From the chap who dashed across the road to stick a £5 note in the collection tin, to the young lad who put his pocket money in, they were all so kind. We had some very good homing enquiries and many people stopped to chat and ask questions, so it was a great opportunity to raise awareness too.
Thanks go to Elizabeth, Mike with Blue, Emma with Olive & Spike and Sallie and her daughter, Kimberley, with Tess and Alfie. You made it a fun day and it was lovely to have so many well behaved hounds together. I took Gaia (foster) and she behaved impeccably – even managed quite a long snooze until an ambulance woke both her and Solo up!
Finally, we raised a very respectable sum of £161.81. Thank you Warminster!
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Sainsburys, Camberley
Corinne Harris, 02/08/2010
24 July
We were only about 5 miles from the Farnborough Air Show and in the afternoon saw quite a few planes plus the brilliant Red Arrows. I didn't have my glasses on and at one point thought two birds were planes!
It was very hot so there was lots of cold towel action for the dogs and it was really busy with a few good rehoming enquiries and a possible volunteer for the future.
Many thanks to Val, Sue, Jennie and Iain for helping and of course your scrummy hounds.
Those tins were heavy and we took home £537.42.
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Hampshire Fun Dog Show
Corinne Harris, 02/08/2010
Sunday 18 July
WOW what a day! The weather was perfect and people turned up in droves.
A massive thank you to the utterly fantastic Hampshire team for all their tremendous work in helping to put this show together and of course to Herts, Dorset, Somerset and Kent regions for coming along with some of their Homeless Hounds.
The best news is that six of them found their forever homes plus another two going off into foster - absolutely fantastic. Hopefully there will be more rehomings in the pipeline as the HH tent was busy all day with enquiries.
A big thank you also to the delightful actress Annette Crosbie who very kindly judged the Best in Show - not an easy task! but an excellent job was done.
On the day we raised an amazing £2400.45 and have had more money sent in since the day as we had two very talented photographers in the shape of Liz R and Liz C who did a fab job running the photoshoot stall and lots of people have ordered their dog's photo(s).
I was sunburnt and completely pooped by the end of the day but it was so worth it, if for nothing else, but to see those gorgeous hounds now firmly sitting on their own sofas.
Roll on 2011!
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Dorset County Canine Society Summer Show - 25 July
Liz Baker, 01/08/2010
The show took place at Kingston Maurward Agricultural College just outside Dorchester. We were lucky to be offered a pitch at this event and we are grateful to Sheron and Bryan for facilitating that for us. Those attending the show were mostly competitors with family / friends. We were not massively busy but had one serious enquiry about adoption. We raised £113 and it was an enjoyable day in a pleasant (sunny) environment. Thanks goes to the Team: Trudy, Natalie, Ann, Kevin, Cath, Danielle, Pete and Nicola (+ their wonderful hounds). Not forgetting Jane and Steve from the Hants Team who were staying in the College's caravan club field.
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Yealmpton Show
Canny Hart, 30/07/2010
On Wednesday 28th July we attended Yealmpton Show. We hadn’t attended in previous years but had heard from other traders about how good it was and so thought that we would take a risk and give it a try.
Well we couldn’t have been more delighted. For once everything was perfect except for the time that our alarm clocks went off that morning which was 4am!
The drive to the show went without a hitch, it was quite a long way away taking an hour and a half but on arrival the venue was lovely, the weather was perfect, not too hot or too cold, the loos were close by as was the water tap to refill the dogs bowls and those of you who do lots of shows will understand how helpful it is to have these things close to your stand!
The pitch we had was great and we enjoyed a nice view across the showground of the horse rings. The volunteers as always were brilliant, and their trusty dogs the perfect ambassadors.
The show was really busy and we had the pleasure of meeting some lovely people who showed plenty of interested in the work that we do and who gave generously to the collecting tins.
In total we raised £389.77 and had a couple of what seemed to be very serious homing enquiries so we will wait to see how they develop.
Massive thanks to everyone involved for getting some time off work to attend & help with this mid week event. It was a great success and a thoroughly enjoyable day. We will look forward to returning next year.
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Hitchin Collection 24/07/10
Claire Gambrell, 27/07/2010
It was the Rhythms of The World Festival on Saturday in Hitchin and the sun was shining, so the perfect day for GRWE volunteers to be out and about with hounds, collecting money and raising awareness.
There seemed to be a lot of homing interest, with leaflets given out and people coming over to make a fuss of the dogs.
It was a very successful day with a total of £377.24 collected in the tins and two new volunteers recruited. The best part of the day though, was that one couple and their two children came over to see the dogs a total of three times during the day! – Their home check is already booked, so fingers crossed there will be another hound in a new home very soon.
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Dorchester Street Collection
Liz Baker, 15/07/2010
10th July 2010 - I was a bit worried about this collection as just ten days before our collection ‘Greyhounds in Need’ carried out a very successful collection in the town centre. It seems that Dorchester shoppers were happy, yet again, to empty their pockets for the greyhounds.
It was a warm sunny Saturday but thankfully not everyone had headed for the beach and the town was quite busy. We chatted with loads of lovely people and spoke to some who expressed interest in sharing their homes with a hound, leaflets were given out and, as ever, we'll keep our fingers crossed.
Ann with Looby-Loo, Tasha with Charlie, Kevin & Cath with Hope, Toni with Lily, Pete with Harry & Otto (+ me and Mojo) all worked hard to raise an excellent £326.
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Musbury & Whitford WI Talk
Canny Hart, 15/07/2010
Musbury and Whitford Women’s Institute, Devon.
On Tuesday 13th July GRWE was kindly invited to talk about the industry and greyhounds as pets following their racing career. The event was to have taken place in a lovely garden with apple trees, but the Devon weather put paid to that. Squalls of heavy rain and low cloud sent us all indoors to the village hall, a perfect venue given the conditions outside.
The ladies listened to the history of the breed with its strengths and delicacies. There was an outline of how the racing industry developed and the way some dogs are discarded from an early age through to natural retirement. Maddy outlined very clearly GRWE’s part in the rehoming process and invited lots of questions, and Vicki told us about how she fostered George and couldn’t bear to part with him once his personality developed. All five dogs present behaved impeccably and made many new friends and won hearts all round.
To close there was a wonderful strawberry and cream tea and the most generous donation of £85. Many thanks to the WI of East Devon for their hospitality and gift.
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Goosnargh and Longridge Show, Lancashire
Claire Mason, 14/07/2010
Saturday 10th July
After morning drizzle cleared, more people arrived and the show had a nice family feel to it.
Classes to be judged included shire horses and foals, rare breed sheep and poultry with a display of unusual hens' eggs - including green ones!
All breeds of dog from chihuahuas and chinese crested to afghans and mastiffs in the Kennel Club licensed dog show.
Birds of prey, alpacas and even a large monitor (lizard variety!) which stopped right outside our gazebo to sun itself didn't phase our kennel dogs who behaved wonderfully throughout a very long and tiring day.
People who had recently adopted a dog from us came to see us as well as some who were waiting to home a dog once their holidays were over.
Merchandise sales and collect tin donations brought in the superb total of £430.05
Giving us a grand total of 1266.74 for the weekend!
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Tesco Extra Burnley, Lancashire
Claire Mason, 13/07/2010
Fund Raising Weekend
Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th July
Saturday and Sunday saw us at Tesco Extra in Burnley. This is a HUGE store; one of the busiest in the country that fact was certainly reflected in the collecting tins.
People were really interested in the dogs; many couldn't believe how settled they were. People's kindness really touched us - one lady became very tearful when she heard of the horrific conditions the kennel dogs present were found in. A young boy used his pocket money to buy some treats for the kennels dogs and was delighted by our gratitude. Several people came back on Sunday to see us with different dogs - these greyhounds have some pulling power!
With some homing interest and a grand total of £836.69 we had a fantastic weekend at the store.
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Walton in Gordano Village Fete Saturday 10th July
Josh & Sarah Harris, 13/07/2010
We were invited to attend Walton in Gordano village fete this year by the owners of the lovely Kyle and Daisy. It is a lovely village between Clevedon and Portishead (near Bristol).
We ran a tombola which proved to be very popular and I baked some dog treats to sell.
There was lots to see, line dancing, tug o war, dog show, penalty shoot out for the kids so a fun day was had by all.
We raised £49 on the tombola and collected £44.71 and all in just over three hours!
Thank you to everyone who helped us on the day and hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
ps we have been invited back for next year and may help out with the dog show!
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Upham Show
Corinne Harris, 13/07/2010
Saturday 10 July
Whilst out out collecting a couple of months ago we were asked if we would like to attend a small village dog show / fete and parade our hounds to promote GRWE.
So last Saturday we did! I took 6 of mine helped by Heidi, Sarah with Leah and Steve and Jane with Beth and Louie.
We had a lovely afternoon in the most beautiful setting and seeing as it was a relatively small show we had some really good interest.
A great day was had by all and our hounds made us very proud once again by not only winning three classes plus a second and a fourth but by so many people saying how absolutely beautiful and well behaved all nine dogs were.
Big thank you to Penny for inviting us along and see you next year!
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Dorchester Street Collection 10 July 2010
Liz Baker, 12/07/2010
Yet another warm and sunny day in Dorset's County Town. Happily not everyone had headed for the beach and the town was quite busy. Shoppers were generous and happy to talk to us and our hounds. We spoke to people who expressed interest in sharing their homes with a hound, leaflets were given out and, as ever, we'll keep our fingers crossed.
Ann with Looby-Loo, Tasha with Charlie, Kevin & Cath with Hope, Toni with Lily, Pete with Harry & Otto (+ me and Mojo) all worked hard to raise an excellent £326
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Bath Street Collection
Rob & Fliss Voisey, 06/07/2010
Saturday 3rd July 2010
An early start to make sure that we weren’t late meant that Rob and I arrived half an hour early so we started the day sat in the sun outside a lovely café in the Abbey Churchyard.
Jan and Jackie (who brought the boards and table) soon arrived and set up outside the pump rooms. We had been worried that we wouldn’t have enough people but once again the troops turned out and there seemed to be hounds all over Bath town centre!
We had several kennel dogs including the wonderful Billy who was such a well behaved boy and showed the people of Bath what fabulous dogs greyhounds are! What a wonderful pet he will make for some lucky person.
The weather was wonderful and so warm that poor Rocky had to have a couple of soakings to cool off. We had quite a bit of homing interest which is always great and several possible sponsors too. And if that wasn’t enough we raised the fantastic sum of £836.77
Thank you everyone who turned out to help.
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Enford Fete & Dog Show
Michele Way, 05/07/2010
Well what an impromptu affair on Sunday, 26th June! Having intended to go to the show to see if it was viable for next year’s calendar, a phone call late Friday night changed all plans for a sedate Saturday afternoon! Following a quick call to Michelle Haley and emails to volunteers, baking started in earnest for the following day.
The show was pretty well attended despite the beach weather and there was also a dog show – I was asked to judge Beautiful Belle, great fun and practice for the 18th July!
My inaugural outing resulted in £20.45 taken for dog treats and donations with £13 in prize draw tickets as well. Not a huge amount, but there were some very good homing enquiries which hopefully will bear fruit.
One lovely older couple had been told by another charity, (non-greyhound), they couldn’t ever have a greyhound because they can’t live with cats! I was very happy to disabuse them of this and they happily trundled off armed with GRWE contact details. I also met my first Sloughi – a dainty little girl called Honey.
My grateful thanks go to Jan and Blaze for helping during the hottest afternoon we’ve had in a long time. Also to Michelle H who very kindly dropped off the missing equipment I needed at very short notice! Here’s looking forward to the next one.
Pictures: The stand; Beautiful Blaze; Jan, Blaze, Solo and Honey, a visiting Sloughi.
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Newhall Greyhound Playgroup
Canny Hart, 05/07/2010
On Sunday 4th July we held another one of our popular Greyhound Playgroups at Newhall Equestrian Centre, near Exeter. 29 dogs and their owners joined us for the event each enjoying two ten minute play sessions with a break in between for a raffle and refreshments.
Plenty of merchandise was purchased and owners enjoyed time for a catch up and some greyhound gossip. These social playgroups are as much for the benefit of greyhound owners as the dogs and provide a good opportunity for people to discuss any problems that they may be having with their dogs and to share their experiences with others.
It was lovely to see old friends and new and an absolute credit to the owners of the dogs to see them all looking in such great health. Not too fat or too thin and all with beautifully shining coats. We also had the pleasure of the company of Alfie a greyhound puppy who had been rehomed by another dog charity. Obviously he was still too young to play with the grown ups, but enjoyed getting social contact with other sighthounds and had some playtime with his family on his own, until such a time comes when he is old enough to enjoy the rough and tumble with the big boys!
Thank you to everyone who joined us for this fun evening, to the volunteers for giving up their Sunday evening to help and of course to Newhall Equestrian Centre for allowing us to hold our playgroup on their premises.
The event raised a total of £206.29.
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Street Collection - Seaton
Canny Hart, 05/07/2010
On Saturday we held a street collection in aid of GRWE in Seaton town centre. Unbeknown to me at the time of getting the licence to collect it was also Seaton Cycling Festival weekend, a celebration of all things bicycle, which meant there were lots of other events going on in the town that day including displays from the local Morris men, a magician, the majorettes and some very odd shaped bikes as you can see in the picture!
The fact that there were other events going on in the town meant that the town was busier than usual and so in just a couple of hours we managed to collect £111.79. We also had several enquiries about homing dogs and lots of people came over to give the dogs a cuddle.
Thank you to all of the shoppers of Seaton for their generous donations and their genuine interest in the work that we do. Thank you to Trotters Café for providing us with complimentary cups of tea that were very much appreciated, and to Tony, Ben, Ellie and the dogs for giving up their Saturday morning to help.
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Portishead Street Collection
Josh & Sarah Harris, 03/07/2010
We had a lovely day collecting in Portishead High Street. The sun was shining but we found a lovely shady spot under a tree and were kept supplied with buckets of water and umbrellas for the dogs by a kind lady from a nearby shop.
We raised £106.56 and received a serious rehoming offer.
Thank you to everyone who helped on the day.
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Axe Vale Festival
Canny Hart, 02/07/2010
Axe Vale Festival – 26th & 27th June.
Last weekend we took the GRWE stand for the first time to the Axe Vale Festival. The festival is a beautiful two day show with a predominantly horticultural theme, but basically a celebration of all things countryside. This was the shows 16th year of running and it has become so popular that trade stand numbers have to be limited and many traders had to be turned away this year. We were very fortunate to have our entry accepted for the show and thus enjoyed a very hot two days chatting to some lovely people and enjoying the wonderful atmosphere. It got so hot that at one point on Saturday afternoon we even had to resort to putting wet towels onto the dogs to help try to keep them cool.
Due to the excitement and the building anticipation of the forthcoming England match on Sunday afternoon we once again went with the England theme and changed our usual red, white and blue bunting for the St George’s Cross to show our support. At 2.30pm as predicted, the show went very quiet with many people dashing home to put their TV’s on and those that couldn’t like the stall holders tuned into Radio 5 Live.
It was a fun atmosphere, but needless to say we packed up on Sunday evening once again feeling disappointed with England’s performance. Thankfully Devon’s trusty team of volunteers and their faithful hounds as always reliably performed impeccably raising a total of £465.03 and doing us all justly proud!
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Street Collection in Wadebridge
Anthea Dove, 02/07/2010
Street Collection in Wadebridge, Saturday, 26th June.
This Saturday the Co-Op in Wadebridge kindly allowed us to collect outside their store. We set up "camp" in the only bit of shade available and shoppers soon put their money in the collection tins.
Many people stopped to stroke the dogs and Lucy revelled in the attention she received - the boys staying home due to the hot weather!
We had some serious enquiries - one lady is relocating back from Teneriffe after, 20 years away, and wants a greyhound once her property is sold.
We packed up after 3 hours as it was getting too hot for us and the dogs.
Many thanks to the no.1 team - Sue Fowler, Sue Hicks and Lucy and my Maisie and Beth.
We raised £43.63
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Fairfield House Residential Home
Liz Baker, 02/07/2010
Fairfield House Residential Home, Lyme Regis, Dorset – 25th June.
GRWE was contacted by Fairfield House as they were keen for us to give a talk and bring our hounds along to meet some of the residents. This needed to be done on a weekday as their weekends are busy with residents’ visitors. Dorset volunteers seemed to be largely unavailable so Devon came to my rescue; Maddy, Carol and Chris brought their wonderful hounds on a very hot afternoon. (Thanks to Canny for putting me in touch with the Devon Team).
It is disconcerting giving a talk when a good percentage of your audience are fast asleep! In my defence, they were sound-o before I started talking. After the talk our four greyhounds circulated and said hello very politely to residents and staff. Some residents were armed with treats for the dogs and the chef brought out some sausage – a very popular gentleman.
We came away with £26.00 in donations and having promoted our sponsor dogs, we left some forms in anticipation.
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Portsmouth Street Collection
Corinne Harris, 30/06/2010
Wow it was mega hot in the sun, however with the help of a slight breeze and the shade of the trees we managed to keep cool.
It was a black, white and blue hound day! and we were joined by a new "recruit" in the shape of Karla, with 2 of her hounds Vinnie and Shylo (GRWE girl, was Jessica).
There was quite a lot going in the City Centre so dogs had to contend with a fair amount, including the most enormous bunch of balloons which Rafferty thought was just THE most scary thing - bless his heart.
The radio station which was there kept giving us great shout-outs, thank you!, and we took home £413.09
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Greyhound Gathering, Blackburn, Lancashire
Lucille Cavadino, 27/06/2010
Well what can I say? Just about one of our most successful gatherings ever! The sun shone and there was a light breeze (just as I think Claire ordered) and the dogs kept their cool by relaxing in the shade of some huge trees at the end of the walk whilst slurping down water and munching on schmakos and sausages.
We had some fantastic homing interest both from our own volunteers, from new homes waiting and ready to go after holidays and also from complete strangers that we encountered on the walk who were captivated by our dogs. I must say we have some absolutely magnificent dogs with us at the moment – you would be hard pressed to choose between them. We also had new volunteers join us to see what we were all about (and apparently, they liked us :-) plus the offer of new volunteer help from people that met us for the first time today. And, as if that wasn’t enough, we also saved an unwanted greyhound from being advertised for free and potentially falling into the wrong hands – phew – I told you it was a great gathering, didn’t I? Oh and I nearly forgot, there was also the nice sum of £108 in our bucket. See us talking greyhounds!
Thank you so so much to everyone who was involved in making today such a success – from the organising, to the walking, transport, help and support of all kinds plus donations of goodies for the kennel hounds – you were all brilliant – we are a great team here in Lancashire :-)
However, I think you will forgive me if I say that the undoubted star of the show today must go to the original honorary greyhound – my Maisie – for those of you who were there you will know exactly what I mean – for those of you who weren’t – well, what can I say? The hips might have gone, but hey, where there’s a will there’s a way !!
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Great British Greyhound Walk - Newquay
Anthea Dove, 25/06/2010
Sunday, 20th June, Newquay. Great British Greyhound Walk. 10am
Our GBGwalk, in Newquay, was a great success. Greyhounds kept appearing with their owners and at the photo shoot they numbered 29.
Jo and Ed Head took the lead and we all followed around the zoo and down into the park, walking over or through the stream, accross the road and around the boating lake, the dogs stopping to play or drink in the water!
More greyhounds joined us in the park and the final number was 35.
This included a couple and their greyhound from Birmingham, who came down to Newquay for their holiday. They read about the walk on the GBGW website and decided to join us. Greyhounds came from all over Cornwall, despite other walks at Plymouth and Redruth.
On the way back we stopped at the cafe for drinks or ice-creams; Lucy had her usual vanilla ice-cream!
It was great to hear other people's stories and experiences with their greyhounds.
A big thank you to Jo Head for organising this event.
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Southampton Street Collection
Corinne Harris, 24/06/2010
Saturday 19 June
Although the sun shone it was a tad chilly first thing and late afternoon.
Massive thank you to all you wonderful people and your gorgeous hounds for helping.
And also many thanks to the Management at West Quay Shopping Centre for allowing to collect at their entrance.
I believe we have already had one home offer from being there, so that is just brilliant.
We all kept saying we didn't think it was as busy as last year and we were taken completely aback once the donations had been counted as we took home a totally fantastic £1,110.89!!
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Collection & Awareness Day, Tesco Haslingden, Lanc
Claire Mason, 22/06/2010
Saturday 19/06/10
This week saw us drumming up support in Haslingden. To make the most of the collection we went with an England football theme - which was very popular with shoppers - although having seen the teams performance some volunteers were worried that they might get pelted with rotten fruit! Very tolerant hounds wore the England flag with pride. It always amazes me how laid back these dogs are; they really do seem to take everything in their stride.
It was our first visit to this store and we were made extremely welcome by the Community Campion - Collette. We hoped the response would be good and it certainly was. We raised an amazing total of £425.31 - doing Lancashire proud again.
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Sherborne Castle Country Fair 31/05/10
Liz Baker, 20/06/2010
Our first year at Sherborne having had to jump through a few hoops to prove to the Fair’s Committee that we were worthy of being there!
A lovely warm, sunny bank holiday brought lots of visitors to this popular venue. We were kept busy chatting to people, with a few promising conversations; fingers crossed for some follow-up enquiries.
The Sherborne Castle Team comprised: Cath & Kevin with ‘Hope’; Trudy with ‘Star’; Ellie with ‘Roshie’; Michelle with ‘Solo’; Danielle with ‘ Topaz’ and my ‘Mojo’. It was pretty hot and hounds and volunteers did great stuff in the heat.
We took £100 on the tombola, £109 in collection pots and £87 on merchandise.
Ledbury Street Collection
Ginny McCoy, 20/06/2010
Saturday 12 June 2010.
We held our annual collection in Ledbury today, and raised the very respectable sum of £273.42. We did wonder how busy the town would actually be today, due to the World Cup, but fortunately there were some coach trips in, which always swells the coffers, and today we were in luck.
Many thanks to Valerie and Stuart Webb and their friend Roni, who came along with their 3 lovely black hounds, and to Vicky Meek with Gertie, Mabel and whippet Willow. Rio came with me for the day, and we are really pleased because Dilly came along for his first ever street collection with Les for a couple of hours this afternoon, and coped really well – it’s four years to the weekend since we collected him from the kennels, a little shivering wreck, and how lovely to see how far he’s come today, bless him.
So, a good day all round, and two very tired greyhounds who are fast asleep, no doubt until bedtime. Peace at last .....
Kingston Maurward College
Liz Baker, 20/06/2010
Our first year at this event, so it was another ‘unknown’ for the Dorset Team.
The weather was bright and warm, the crowds flocked in and we had a busy day. We hope that some positive conversations will be followed up by would-be hound adopters.
Money did not seem to be flowing into collecting tins as much as we would have liked but Sheron who ‘manned’ the tombola for the best part of the day was kept busy.
Tombola - £102, collection tins - £51.85, merchandise £12.00.
I forgot to take my camera and volunteer Danielle realised she had her camera at end of show, taking-down time. So our photo is of a part-dismantled stand and Toni bagging the easy job holding Topaz, Lily and Mojo.
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Truro Street Collection
Anthea Dove, 20/06/2010
Our street collection in Truro, this week, was totally opposite to one last October - the sun shone ALL day!
We were kept busy with enquiries and people were very generous with their donations.
We were visited by Gillian, Tony and their greyhound Maddie, and Janet with Hoolie and Meg, who helped Maisie and Beth promote the charity.
Hoolie was the star of the day - he greeted everyone with a story, smile and a very waggy tail!
Thank you to Sue Fowler and all who helped and contributed to this successful day. We collected £86.30.
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Bournemouth Street Collection
Corinne Harris, 15/06/2010
5 June 2010
We were blessed with a lovely day and fortunately managed to keep in the shade.
Many thanks to everyone and their hounds for helping as it was quite a hard day as there were two other charities collecting in the Town Centre, one of which had a huge presence, so I think we did pretty well by taking home £523.03 and even better I believe we have already had at least one homecheck from this which is great news.
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Bicton College Open Day
Canny Hart, 14/06/2010
On Saturday 12th June we took the stand with a handful of volunteers and their trusty hounds to Bicton College's Open Day.
Thankfully we were blessed with another lovely sunny day, and despite a bit of trouble finding a suitable pitch first thing in the morning, we eventually got set up on a lovely grassy patch in the shade of huge old tree which was just perfect for the us and the dogs!
We enjoyed the day, taking a total of £139.44 on merchandise, in collecting tins and the tombola and had three serious home enquiries.
As always a big thank you to our volunteers who gave up some of their Saturday to help, those being Christine, Ben, Dave, Lin, Jackie & Freya and of course not forgetting the hounds, Minnie, Flick, Annie, Roger and the very gorgeous Mr Darcy sporting his England attire!
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