Old Macdonald has been put under a lot of pressure from your farmyard friends here in Brentwood to increase his charity work for 2010, and in fact starting from right how. First of all, the Frogs in our Bullfrog Trio have been singing songs about the rainforests for almost a year now, but they finally collared Old Macdonald to raise funds for a special BIAZA reserve in Brazil that will help save a vast area of the Atlantic Rain Forest.
Then the farm cats, so popular, learnt about the Wildlife Heritage Fund who are a charity created to assist with breeding big cats, and in particular the Sumatran Tiger and Amur Leopard, and who are based in Kent, so they nagged him to raise funds for this important project as well.
Then there are our friends from the Starlight Foundation for Seriously Ill Children for whom we have a special day each year and to whom we give the donations made to our Wishing Well in the farm.
Finally, there is the Hopefield Animal Sanctuary in Brentwood, and we will be fund raising for them in 2010 as well.
So there you are, four wonderful charities, so read on to lean more about them all and see how we are going to help.
First of all, the BIAZA reserve. BIAZA is the British and Irish Association for Zoos and Aquariums and we are proud to be members. All quality Zoos, as all BIAZA members are, assist in conservation projects and BIAZA itself is involved with the World Land Trust. The World Land Trust is an international conservation organisation, who work with local conservation organisations to purchase and protect threatened wildlife habitat.
The World Land Trust initiated The Wild Spaces programme in 2006 as a way for zoos to contribute to habitat conservation overseas. Within that programme a BIAZA reserve in Brazil has been created which members can help contribute towards. BIAZA and the World Land Trust are working in partnership with a Brazilian conservation organisation in the creation of the BIAZA Reserve. They have been protecting the Atlantic forest since 1998 and already protect over 7,000 hectares.
The Wildlife Heritage Foundation (WHF) is predominantly concerned with supporting animals, but will also help to protect endangered and rare plant life working with other organisations to maximise the effectiveness of their actions. The WHF is based at The Big Cat Sanctuary in Kent, where they house a large number of selected endangered big cats with the view to breeding and where possible re-introduction to their home continents. The WHF is actively directing its efforts towards saving endangered species by protecting their habitat and raising awareness of the causes and threats to the endangered species and their habitats. They have been superbly successful in their work, with two rare Sumatran Tiger cubs born last year, and thriving, plus 2 very rare Amur Leopard cubs born as well. There are only 30 Amur Leopards still alive in the wild and they are the world’s most endangered cat species. They are also very beautiful.
Starlight should need no introduction to you our loyal reader, as this wonderful charity raises funds to grant wishes for seriously ill children and their families, and we strongly recommend you view their website www.starlight.org.uk to learn more. We are always proud and delighted to welcome Starlight Families as our guest for a day our here at Old Macdonald’s Farm and to raise funds to support their vital work. The improvement in health of seriously ill children when they are granted a Starlight Wish is a joy to behold and they are highly efficient in ensuring that money from donations funds the wishes and not their administrative costs. We will always support then.
Finally our local Animal Rescue Centre, Hopefield, in Brentwood. Hopefield Animal Sanctuary is a non-profit organisation devoted to creating a better quality of life for sick, unwanted and mistreated animals. There are approximately 200 rescued animals at Hopefield (mainly horses, ponies, donkeys, pigs, sheep, cows and goats). It costs over £10,000 a month to run Hopefield. In the winter extra bales of straw and hay each week are needed and the running costs are even higher. As many of Hopefield’s animals come to the Sanctuary with long-term illnesses or complications, vets fees are high. As you can imagine, finding this amount of money is a constant struggle so please support Hopefield. Paula and Ernie Clay (both well deserved MBEs) would not have been able to keep the Sanctuary going without contributions from others such as you, dear reader. They dedicate their lives to this task and are true protectors of animals. Find out more about Hopefield by visiting www.hopefield.org.uk or by visiting them in Sawyers Hall Farm, Sawyers Hall Lane, Brentwood, Essex CM15 9BY.
We at Old Macdonald’s Farm were saddened to learn of the passing of Paula Clay on 19th September after a long illness which she faced with typical bravery. The world is a lesser place having lost her and in her memory we hope that you will be particularly generous to this important local rescue centre.
So how are we going to help? Easy really, by getting you to give them money! We are going to have a series of charity days during the year and at each of these we will collect money using the traditional collection tin system around the farm, and back these up with displays, talks and visuals of these wonderful charities. We will then split the money between them as they are each important to us and to the beneficiaries. And we will twist Old Macdonald’s arm to make run a series of special offers during the year when Kids can come for a quid, and we will donate the £1 per child to the charity pool so you will get a bargain when you visit and the charities will receive much needed income. Warning on those days, Old Mac gets very tearful when money that he thinks should be going to his “Make an Old Farmer Rich” fund gets diverted to what we all would think would be a better cause. Actually, he does not mind at all.
If you have any ideas yourself, then respond to this article, and if you want to donate to any of these charities you can email us at oldmacdonalds@btconnect.com and we will put you straight in touch with them.
By the way, there is a visit being organised by BIAZA to their reserve in Brazil and I asked Old Macdonald to fund me for the trip to our chosen charity, for purely educational reasons of course. He said yes and I was thrilled until I realised that he was paying for my bus fare to Brentwood to visit Hopefield rather than BIAZA in Brazil. Oh well, it was a great day to visit.
