1.      Member’s messages wanted

 We want to have our newsletters reflect the views and feelings of the membership so we ask that you e-mail us a short letter of between 200 to 250 words and we will pick the best one and publish it a future newsletter with the author receiving full credit. It can express your feelings about the job we do, things that you’d like us to do or your ideas to make this newsletter or our society a better one.

2.      Our Improved Shelter - with even more to come

The past year has seen many changes here at S.A.D. If you haven't been here in a while then we encourage you to come down and see the improvements we've made here at the shelter. With the help of many businesses around town as well as public donations we've managed to paint nearly the entire shelter in bright cheerful colours! The whole atmosphere is one of friendliness, cleanliness, fun, excitement and, of course, love. Along with these changes there have also been staffing changes made and we have a really great team in place. Everyone works together to ensure that the animal’s needs are met and it is everyone's priority and goal to make their experience here at S.A.D. as positive as possible while they await their forever homes. Come on down and visit us anytime Monday-Friday 8am-4pm to have a look around, visit with the animals and have any questions you might have answered by our helpful friendly staff. 
Our next project is to overhaul the laundry room, as it is in pretty bad shape, and while we have the ceramic tiles which were donated, we need a volunteer that would be kind enough to donate some time to install them for us. We're also planning on replacing the floor in the isolation room as it quite old and worn but will be using regular laminate which the staff here does know how to put down - we plan on tackling this project once the laundry room is complete. 
We desperately need a fairly large storage shed as we are using spare kennels at the moment, which means that spaces that could be used to house dogs are full of things that really belong in a shed.

3.      Volunteers

3.1     Katimavik Guys and Gals

A huge thank-you to all of the students who have come to us from Katimavik. Everyone who has met them has so enjoyed having them work with us (and that includes all of our 4 legged residents). We can not thank them enough for all their hard work and as each group leaves we miss them but also wish them the best of luck in their future endeavours. Thank you Katimavik.

3.2     Sunshine Ladies and the Sunshine Shop

The store is managed by June Bryant and there are now 25 volunteers working Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 4:00. The store sells clothing, household articles, small appliances, books and many other things but they do not accept computers or larger furniture because of space restrictions. All items that are put up for sale are checked to ensure that they are working. The money they bring in for S.A.D. is about $1,000.per week so it is a very important part of our income. On top of that, the ladies make up baskets that they raffle off, have bake sales and also recently had a silent auction that raised $396 so as you can see our Sunshine Ladies are invaluable to S.A.D. and it is difficult to thank them enough for all their hard work and dedication – we really would not make it without them. By the way, June is always looking for volunteers who can work 3 hours a week either sorting in the back or serving customers in the store so contact her at 461-7806.

4.      Fundraising results

Our latest events are the Easter Bake Sale that was held in the Algo Mall and raised $1,200.and the raffle of the Moonscape painting by Gail Lacasse which she so generously donated, and it has already raised $2,200 so far, including donations. Complete details are available on our website.

5.      Upcoming events

April 26            Pool Tournament organised by Pet Valu and hosted by the Bankside 
May 24            Gail Lacasse will draw the winner at the Sunshine Shop for her painting
May 30            Radiothon and associated activities, including a BBQ
June 14           Walkathon and associated activities
July 4              BBQ at Bob’s No Frills and associated activities
Complete details are available on our website.

6.      Reaching out to you

6.1     Website

We are hoping that it will become your site of choice for everything pet related and we encourage members to tell us if there is anything that you would like to see as it really isyour site and is the best way for us to make a lot more information available than we could ever hope to provide in our paper newsletters. It is usually changing because we are either providing details of the animals that are available for or have been adopted or else we’re putting up something that we think is informative, humorous or both.

6.2     Newsletter distribution

We are trying our e-mail distribution for this edition so if you got this, please take a moment and reply with just your name so that we know that we have your address correct.We never make our membership information available to anyone outside our organization.

Membership

We did a membership analysis in November 2008 and were saddened to see that our membership has fallen off dramatically. Perhaps this is our fault and we have not been doing enough to keep you interested and in touch and perhaps it is partly due to the failing economy. Whatever the reason, please know that we are trying to do better and that S.A.D. needs its members and we ask that anyone whose membership has lapsed or who is not yet a member please consider joining us. We do need you and to all those of you who took out memberships during our recent drive a big thank-you. Most of the new members supplied their e-mail address as part of their contact information so that will help with future newsletter distribution.

7.      Pop can collection

This is an increasing part of our revenue as we take the pop cans to a recycler in Sudbury who then pays us by the pound. Cans can be dropped off at the shelter at any time and the following facilities collect them for us and we pick them up from them weekly.

We also have a number of individuals who collect them until they have one or more big garbage bags full and then we make arrangements to pick them up. To be added to our list of collectors please call the shelter.

8.      Assistance with S.A.D.’s charity bingos

We are one of the charities that benefit from those run at Bingo Plus and our portion of the proceeds is a major part of our revenues. The rules stipulate that we must have three members in attendance at each of the events that are sponsored for us otherwise we will lose our license to be an included charity. Each board member is currently attending at least one bingo a month but we need more help from our members so please consider volunteering with your board – it can be fun and the more people who get involved the more we can spread the load. If you would like to help us please call or drop into the shelter and leave your name and phone number so that a Director can get back to you.