09 Apr En Route to Arkansas!
It’s so much fun to be writing Last Hope K9 Rescue’s first official blog from 36,000 feet in the air!
29 LHK9 volunteers (who have each paid their own way) are on our way to Little Rock, Arkansas for our 3rd annual service trip to give volunteers the opportunity to see where the thousands of dogs we’ve helped find FURever homes start their journey. The North/South connection between LHK9, our “sister” organization Rescue Road, and our partner shelters in AR has become such an amazingly strong and close knit group. The individuals involved have become family even though we are 1,300 miles apart and only see each other once or twice a year. When we talk to family members, friends, co-workers, or even people we just met in the airport or on the plan, everyone is so happy to hear the details about our organization as a whole and certainly about this trip. They love hearing how we are an all-volunteer run organization with little overhead costs, and at only 3 years old are able to save approximately 1,000 dogs in a year. We are all VERY proud of the organization we’ve built..
As we like to say, “it takes a village”, the 30 individuals who volunteer up to 40 hours a week as coordinators on top of their day jobs are only the beginning. None of what we do would be possible without the ever growing and crucial foster network, who are the backbone of the organization. As we don’t have a brick and mortar facility, we simply couldn’t survive without our fosters. Then, there are the approximately 400 active volunteers who help process about 500 adoption and foster applications a month, volunteer at weekly events, train our dogs, and transport the pups to and from events…just to name a few. To sum it up, we have one hell of an amazing volunteer network that keeps this train running and each volunteer contributes to saving the lives of thousands of dogs.
So what’s this trip all about? Well, there will be some great “socializing”…don’t think we won’t find time to have fun! We have to get to know our southern family better, right?! More importantly, we will be visiting the nine shelters from which we pull our dogs and work with the rescue shelter leads and AR volunteers to not only bathe, vaccinate, medically test, and temperament assess the dogs in their care…but where allowed, we will also be leaving a little LHK9 touch on each shelter. At some shelters we’ll do landscaping and painting, at another we’ll remodel the dog bathing area. The biggest project of them all will be at a completely outdoor shelter with no protection from that brutal AR sun; we will create a structure to keep direct sunlight off of the dogs.
It will be both a physically and emotionally draining week for everyone involved…but the lessons we’ll learn and the understanding we’ll gain by seeing where our dogs’ journeys begin will only make us stronger and more passionate in what we do. Thank you so much for your support thus far, and we hope to continue to receive your support in the future as we continue our journey to find FURever homes for as many helpless dogs in need as we can. Throughout the week we’ll be sure to keep everyone updated on our progress, so please be sure to check back here as different volunteers will blog about their experiences from their point of view.
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