Special announcement

Our cat quarters are overflowing so for a limited time we are reducing our adoption fees:

WHEN:            For the rest of July and the whole of August

COST:                        $50 for one cat or $75 for two cats. All cats have been spayed/neutered by SAD.

If you can help by adopting one or two of our cats into a loving home, please call the shelter at 461 3197 and/or visit our web site at WWW.SADELLIOTLAKE.COM to see who needs your help.

1.      Message from the President

The few months since the last newsletter have certainly been exciting ones and much has been achieved. Working with ELNOS, together with the most generous help of individuals and businesses in Elliot Lake, we managed to raise sufficient monies to pay to have our leaky roof repaired. This is a job that should have been tackled many years ago but it wasn’t and consequently the water damage was getting out of hand. Now we can report that it is completed and we are working on repairing the damage done internally to walls and ceilings. Soon the shelter will be back to normal or I should say new and revised and we hope you will pay us a visit. More on this endeavour later in this newsletter.

I can also report that the Ad Hoc Committee, which I sit on, was recently successful in obtaining a resolution from City Council to allow SAD to increase the discount it receives from the sale of animal tags at the Shelter from 10% to 20%. The City also agreed to give SAD 20% of the monies made by the City on the sale of tags from City Hall. It’s taken a long time and many negotiations to get this matter resolved and we are pleased that the City has agreed to support SAD in this way.

The down-side of this report is the number of cats we are trying to house at the shelter and despite the fact that we have advertised for, given a radio interview for, put up posters about, cajoled, begged and bartered, we still seem to be unable to get any new foster homes for our cats. I will once again reiterate here, and you will also see a report from our new Foster Home Co-ordinator later in this newsletter, it is absolutely essential that SAD has foster homes - it is one of the most important jobs that anyone can do for the shelter. 

As you know we take animals from the Pound. Dogs we can usually house but at this time of year, we become inundated with cats. If we become full, and we are right now, we cannot take those cats from the Pound. If we do not take them in they will be gassed by Animal Control at the Pound after the requisite 4 days. No matter if they are young, no matter if they are healthy, no matter if they have years of love and life ahead of them - if SAD cannot make room for them they WILL be gassed. That is why Foster Homes are so important - they allow us to make room at the shelter for those animals coming from the Pound.  So once again I would urge everyone reading this newsletter to try to make room in their homes for a foster cat in order to save the life of another. You will only ever receive an animal that has been at the shelter and who is known to be healthy; there is absolutely no cost to you, we pay for everything; and once there is room back at the shelter you can return him/her or if you wish and have become attached you can adopt.  So please help us to help the animals. You can contact me at jackieh@personainternet.com - I will forward your e-mail to our foster home co-ordinator and she will contact you immediately.

I hope you are all enjoying this wonderful summer we are having. Look for our next newsletter in October which will also have details of our Annual General Meeting which will be held sometime in November.

2.      Shelter manager’s report

In the past few months we have had a major influx of cats here at the shelter, as I’m sure you’re all aware of, as we’ve put out a call for help on the radio due to this situation. We are in desperate need of foster homes in order to free up space at the shelter, and we’re also needing people to come down and visit with the cats and hopefully adopt a new and forever friend. We do understand that it isn’t always possible for our members to either adopt or foster for various reasons, and if you are unable to do these things but would still like to help out in some way we are always looking for volunteers to help out in our cat area, and are also in need of both cat food and clumping cat litter. If you would like any further information about any of the above, please call the shelter at 461-3197 and ask to speak to either myself (Brandi) or our assistant manager (Tracy) and we would be happy to assist you with your questions.

On a good note we are doing remarkably well where our dogs are concerned. Although we’ve had many come through the doors, I’m happy to report that they seem to be going out just as quickly into their loving and happy new homes! I have to tell you, even though at times it’s hard to see them go after spending time getting to know them and love them, it really warms my heart to see a new family come in and give them what they all need so much… a true home and family to call their very own.

We’re in our last round of Katimavik until the fall and have had such a great time with all of the wonderful participants that have come in and helped out over the past few months. Our latest volunteer, Jackson, has been very helpful around the shelter and enjoys the animals so much! Katimavik is such an amazing program for young people and we all benefit so much from the experience. We’ve also had the pleasure of participating in the High School Co-op program again this year and were blessed to have an amazing young woman working here with us. Kristy is off to college this fall and although we’ll miss her terribly we’re wishing her the best of luck in her future endeavors and know that she will succeed in anything she decides to do.

All in all things are going well here at the shelter. Although we have many cats at the moment, we’re managing to cope and keeping everyone healthy and happy as well. If you have some time during the week, stop by and visit! The animals will be grateful for your time, they just love the company!

3.      Sunshine Shop

Please consider the store when doing your shopping and we now carry some furniture, so stop by to check us out as our inventory is constantly changing.

4.      Working committee reports

4.1     Foster homes

As the new Foster Home Co-ordinator, I have held this position for a couple of months now. Jackie, Brandi and I were on “In Touch” with Bobby Alexander a short while ago and he conducted an excellent interview with us.  We have also had our poster up on Channel 10 a number of times and to date 17 posters have been placed in locations within Elliot Lake and Massey.

Although we have had a good response to our request, we are still in desperate need for Foster Homes for our cats. As Jackie has noted in her President’s Report this is a vital part of our work as the only no-kill shelter between Sudbury and the Soo. Without the foster homes, many animals will be needlessly destroyed at the Pound so once again if you can see your way to becoming a foster parent we most definitely need you and there is absolutely no cost to you - just t.l.c. and a roof over their heads is all we ask.

So far we have placed an 8 week old puppy in a foster home as far afield as Sudbury; a 12 year old cat who just couldn’t adapt to shelter life has been placed in Elliot Lake, a 10 year old cat has been placed with a loving Foster parent in Blind River and we have just signed up another foster parent in Massey. But there are still lots of animals (especially cats) at the shelter that need your help.

In the Fall we are planning to reach out further into the Community and will be doing presentations to some of the Community groups at their monthly meetings as well as attempting to have a spot in school newsletters. We are hoping that in this way we can reach out even further and get more foster homes on board. Again you can reach Jackie at her e-mail address and you will be contacted immediately.

Brenda Grant Gooding 

4.2     Fundraising

As most of you know fundraising is the mainstay of any non-profit organization and SAD is no exception. As we receive no direct financial help (apart from the new slight increase we receive from the City for animal tag sales) we are always struggling to make ends meet.

To this end we are trying a slightly different approach and will be contracting with a Fundraising Co-Ordinator to help us streamline and increase our fundraising efforts. We are presently interviewing for this position and so will report further in a later newsletter.

However, we will also be looking to set up a new fundraising committee who will work with the Co-Ordinator once he/she is appointed. We are hoping to get 3 or 4 community members to sit on this committee who will be responsible together with the Co-ordinator for implementing all fundraising events throughout the year. This should be a fun committee for anyone interested in fundraising and we would be most grateful for any help we can get in this new endeavour. If you are interested please contact Jackie at her e-mail address given out in this newsletter and she will answer any questions you may have.

4.2.1   Upcoming fundraising events

So far our two main fundraisers this year are a draw for a large screen TV and the Radiothon. Tickets for this draw are now on sale in the Mall on Fridays and Saturdays and at the Sunshine Store. Details are posted on various bulletin boards around town or you can call the Store at 461 7806 or just drop by and buy a ticket. The draw will take place at 2 PM during the Radiothon which once again is being hosted by Moose FM under the generous auspices of Bobby Alexander. This is usually our biggest event of the year and will be held this year on September 11. As well as all the fun that goes on at the Moose HQ there will be a BBQ; a Silent Auction and this year we will have various items which have been very kindly donated by members of the Arts community. All of these items have been made by and donated by the artists themselves and we can promise you that once you see some of the items which are up for auction, you will be lining up to make a bid.

Other fundraising events will be posted on our web site as we arrange them and as dates become available. 

4.3     Volunteer SAD board members still required

As was mentioned in the President’s report our next Annual General Meeting will be held sometime in November. The exact time and place will be posted on our web site, in the local papers and in our next newsletter as soon as this has been decided.

This is the time when we will be electing new Directors to the Board and this year there will be 3 or 4 new places to fill. Being on a Board is an important part of the requirements necessary for any charity to function.  We would encourage any member who is interested in helping SAD to fulfil its mandate to provide shelter for abandoned, neglected or abused animals to consider applying for a position as Director. Normally we only meet once a month to review situations as they arise at the shelter; to update and revise policies; review our fundraising events and conduct such other business matters as they arise. Meetings are kept as informal as possible and they can be fun as well as provide a challenge for anyone who is interested in moving our shelter forward and developing new and innovative ways to help us improve our service to the Community. SAD is a community service and as such we strive to keep improving but in order to do so we need more Directors to help us reach our goals.  If you are interested again please contact Jackie or drop your resume off at the shelter. The President will contact you to arrange a meeting or to answer any question that you may have.

4.4     New volunteers

This is a new committee that we are trying to form to be responsible for recruiting and retaining volunteers and as such there are no members on it yet. However, we would like to hear from anyone who would be interested in helping us with this committee so if you are interested please contact Jackie at the e-mail address given above. As a new committee anyone joining at this point would have lots of freedom to set it up as they think fit and come up with ideas of how this would work. In other words this is a work in progress with lots of room for input and ideas.

4.5     Website

Big plans are happening for the new website. As you can see we've moved into the new format and layout for sadelliotlake.com. We're planning advertising subscriptions for our local businesses to purchase with lots of incentives and perks. Keep looking for our Go Green pages on tips for going green and staying green by reducing your carbon footprint.

We're planning on a blog for our membership to keep up on daily activities, news and adoptions stories. You'll soon find us on Twitter and you can already find us on Facebook. We're even on Youtube! If any of our membership have videos of animals they adopted from SAD we'd like you to send them on to us to add to our Youtube Channel.

You can now link to us if you have your own website or blog. We'd appreciate a link to get our name further out into the community. We'd also like to apologize for the server issues and scripting errors that occurred last month. They are now fixed and the adoption pages and past adoption pages are functional once again.

Website statistics indicate we are already nearing the 10,000 hits mark for site visitors this month. Thank you for your continued patronage of our website and for your support. It's been a pleasure creating the new SAD website for all of you to enjoy!

Sheal  Mullin

4.6     Budget and Finance

We now have a board-approved budget that will run from May 1, 2010 to April 31, 2011. In spite of a pair of minimum wage increases since our last budget, we plan on ending the year with a small surplus. The finance committee will be paying very close attention to each item monthly so that we can take any required corrective action before issues become problems.

Roy Beauvais  &  Claus Ott

4.7     Building/Capital