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| January's Charity Highlight |
 January's Charity Highlight
Happy New Year, and welcome to 2009! As you may know, we donate 5% of our profits to charity. Based on your suggestions, our staff votes and picks one charity for each category each month. When you purchase tickets, you are asked to select which category you would like us to donate to. At the end of each month, we calculate the share each category will receive; each charity then receives a donation check. For more information about our donation process and how we try to combine the voices of our staff with the wishes of our customers, visit our Donation FAQ.
We'd like you to have more information about each month's charities, so you're well-informed when you get to the checkout. Without further ado, here are this month's charities:
ANIMALS
Animal Care and Adoption Network - San Rafael, CA
http://www.bayarearats.com/
From founder Debra Mendelsohn:
"I have always had a love for animals and I have been volunteering as a 'small animal PetPal' at the Marin Humane Society in Novato, California for several years. What prompted me to care for special needs animals (particularly rats) was the adoption of my first rat Latkah. Latkah came to me with a disclaimer that at 1.5 years old and with respiratory issues, he was not expected to live to two years old.
When I adopted Latkah I researched health care for rats extensively. Debbie 'The Rat Lady' Ducommun and her health care books gave me valuable information about proper nutrition and general care. I also discovered a supplement called Green Mush which is made by Health Force Nutritionals for rats, rabbits and other small animals. At two years old, Latkah was healthier than ever and he went on to live to three years and three months.
A few months after I adopted Latkah, three very frightened rats were dropped off at the Marin Humane Society. The first time I went to pick up the little black Berkshire rat, he cringed in the corner and his two black and white brothers, equally shy, raced to him as if to protect him. When I did pick him up, he squeaked and it was difficult to hold him or his brothers because they had apparently never been handled. The shelter staff sent them out to a rat foster home for 2 weeks.
When they returned to the shelter they were only slightly improved and after one bit a staff member, I was asked if I would adopt them. I set their cage on a platform where they could come out of their cage and interact with me on their own terms which they did very cautiously the first few days. Four days later I sat on the bathroom floor and let them explore the room. Since this new room was unfamiliar to them, they sought comfort with me and ended up crawling on me more than exploring the room. That was a pivotal point in my bonding with these three rats.
I named the three brothers Ross, Joey and Chandler. They quickly blossomed into very social loving rats and Ross served to be the perfect rat to accompany me while I was interviewed by Dan Wedeking for his DVD 'RATS The Great Underrated PET'. Chandler passed at 2.5 years old and Ross and Joey went on to live over 3 years. Joey had a tumor removed shortly before his 3rd Birthday and he healed quickly.
The housings we set up with cages on platforms and Fisher Price toys and igloos on the platforms allow rats to warm up to us on their terms as we can interact with them outside their cage. Therefore, the biters (usually a result of having been neglected or abused before I adopt them) blossom into trusting affectionate rats usually within one or two weeks.
One of my 'medical miracle rats' came from San Francisco Animal Care and Control. The shelter staff asked if I would adopt a rat who came to them in pitiful condition with purple, red and bleeding swollen hind feet. Alvin, as I named him, had a painful and difficult to treat condition known as 'Bumblefoot'. When I brought Alvin home, I noticed that he could hardly walk and did so with his feet curled under him. I cried the first three days I had him.
That first day I consulted vets and people from my various Internet rat groups and I immediately began three treatments that reportedly yielded the best results. Each day I alternated between soaking his feet in diluted solutions of ChlorhexiDerm, Betadine and Epsom Salts. Trying to get a rat to stand in solutions is not an easy task but a washcloth in the bottom of the bowl helped to avoid Alvin's hind feet from slipping.
Even though Alvin would only tolerate these soaking treatments a few seconds at a time each morning and night, within a week there was a noticeable improvement. Within four weeks the painful sores were nearly gone and he was running in a normal fashion up and down his platform and climbing on his toys. At that time I bonded him with a group of 4 other rats and he thoroughly enjoyed the company of his new friends. I have all my male rats neutered and I wait four weeks after the neuter before introducing them to any groups with females.
There is nothing more rewarding than watching a fearful, aggressive or ill rat that I adopt blossom into a trusting, affectionate healthy rat. The only drawback with rats is their all too short life span but with proper care they can live close to or even beyond three years old and I cherish every day I have with each one of my rats."
Debra changed her organization's name from Bay Area Rats to Animal Care and Adoption Network (ACAN) in 2007, since the organization assists with care and adoption of all animals. When you click on "Animals" at the checkout during January, you're contributing to her cause!
CHILDREN
Books for Africa - St. Paul, MN and Africa
http://www.booksforafrica.org/
From their website:
"Books For Africa. A simple name for a simple organization with a simple mission. We collect, sort, ship and distribute books to children in Africa. That's all we do. Our goal: to end the book famine in Africa. Books donated by publishers, schools, libraries, individuals and organizations are sorted and packed by volunteers who carefully choose books that are age and subject appropriate. We send good books, enough books for a whole class to use. They are shipped in containers paid for by contributions from people like you. It costs about 40 U.S. cents to send a book from the United States to Africa."
Selecting "Children" at the checkout will help Books for Africa. If you live in the St. Paul area, you may also contribute books in person. See their website for more info!
ENVIRONMENT
Friends of the Cedar River Watershed - Seattle, WA
http://www.cedarriver.org/
From their website:
"The Friends of the Cedar River Watershed (FCRW) is a private, non-profit organization incorporated in 1996 and dedicated to the protection and restoration of the Cedar River Watershed, an ecological preserve that is source of drinking water to more than a million greater Seattle area residents." Their vision is "a Cedar River Watershed that provides healthy drinking water and ecological systems that support people, fish, and wildlife now and for generations to come."
Selecting "Environment" at the checkout will help Friends of the Cedar River Watershed.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Cultivating Community - Portland, ME
http://www.cultivatingcommunity.org/
From their website:
"Imagine a world in which all families, regardless of income, eat the healthiest, freshest produce; a world in which youth focus their prodigious energies on helping themselves and their neighbors; a world in which people care deeply about the land, their communities, and each other. This is the world we at Cultivating Community are working to create."
Our Human Rights category focuses on the three H's: health, hunger and homelessness. Selecting "Human Rights" at the checkout will help Cultivating Community battle hunger.
Thanks for reading, thanks for voting, and thanks for being involved! Be sure to check back at the beginning of February, for an update on February's charities! |
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