HOW
YOU CAN HELP
"When you are
feeling down, do something for someone or something else and you will forget
about your worries"
Yes, you too
can help animals in need
1. Adopt
from us or any shelter listed on
www.petfinder.com
2. Foster a
dog or cat from your local shelter
3.
Volunteer!! All the programs and shelters need your help and talent!!
4. Become a
mini rescue, go to a killer auction and buy anything that you think you can
help, save and get adopted. Get the horse fat and trained (to the best of your
ability) and we'll help you place him into a great home! Save them one horse at
a time!
5. Donate
items that go straight to the horses (wormers, feed, general supplies, halters,
fly sheets, turn out rugs, tack, etc).
6. Use your
power of the Pen, support your cause and write.... internet ads, articles,
flyers, your congressman, even a story about your adoption horse would be a
great read and will highlight how you helped and how others can help.
How you can help (volunteering)
Set up your own fund raising function:
shows, fairs, tack auctions, open houses, parties, rides, dances with swap being
the benefactor or donate things to swap shopping
Providing basic and transitional job training for horses, lay-up, rehabilitation
from injury for our horses (help us help one horse and you've made a difference,
this can be done by sponsoring a horse financially and send either a lump
sum to be spent on a certain horse or a monthly check that will go that horse
each month or by taking on a special needs horse yourself at your farm)
Are you a school trained farrier or dentist?
(volunteer or lower fees)
Are you a school trained and qualified equine appraiser?
Provide equine appraisals for donors (volunteer or lower fees)
Training and riding instruction for adopters
(sign up to volunteer in your area of the country)
Spend a week, pick your horse program
(spend a week at swap, volunteer and learn while you select your horse, this is
set up around your schedule, just tell us when you want to come, we almost
always have rooms available in the farms main house)
Become a swap advisor on our training and care hotline for adopters
(are you a professional horse person, a vet, farrier or have training in any
area having to do with horses, have years of experience, formal training or good
at a particular area? Do you have time to answer 1 to 5 questions a week on
line, if so you can join our list of advisors that help adopters with their
horses. We have several people doing this right now and its working out great,
people are helping us keep horses in their homes, helping adopters realize that
there are solutions besides giving up)
Student internships, work studies and college credit/scholarships available
(from age 18 and up, have a month or more to get away and have knowledge of
horses? Need an independent study credit for your college, looking for a way to
get money for an equine school or for college? This could be for you!!
Sponsor a local educational and fun equine events
sponsor a swap event in your local area, ask for a media package from us and set
up an information table at a local show, or just ask for swap flyers and request
to be able to stand at the entrance and hand out flyers, even invite swap to
attend the event in your area, all we need is a place to lay our head at night
for one or two people and we can sleep just about anywhere or if you have a
great event in your area, we can put it on our calendar and open it up to all
swap visitors to come, we are looking for ways to let people know about swap and
ways to educate our swap family about all areas of the horse world
Scholarship opportunities
(provide an annual scholarship in your name for worthy young person, we do all
the work and selection (you can be involved if you like), you provide the funds,
this does not have to be huge money, even just promising $250. Each year for say
the next 5 or 10 years can make a difference in a kids college year or may give
them an opportunity to go to an equine dental school or a farrier short course,
or a clinic they have been wanting to attend)
Cinderella program
this is swap's "makeover" program for horses, we are still developing this idea
but basically we are looking for ways to help our adopters and their horses
through problems or even health issues. Stay tuned!!
Life line program
this is a fund for assisting our adopters through health care issues with their
horses. Money available that can be applied for by adopters to help their horse
Over night boarding and housing for our transporters/donors/adopters and their
horses,
this is our underground railroad. We are looking for farms in all areas of the
country where people can house travelors and the horses over night for free.
This would be used by our top 10 transporters, donors and adopters with their
horses. We would really like to get at least 4 volunteers in each state. Even if
you can provide over night boarding for less (say $5. A night that would help
get our horses off trailers and our drivers a good nights sleep)
Swap association membership
(become a member)
Swap quarterly newsletter
(become an editor in our paper, provide articles in training and care,
interesting stories about your adoption horse)
Emergency rescue and disaster assistance to authorities, adopters and donors
volunteer in times of national or regional disaster, if not with us pick an
organization, offer up your farm and facilities if you are close but not in the
path of the bad weather, get trained in disaster and rescue with horses and help
in your local area.
Horse transportation services
provide for less or for free to our program and adopters.
Breaking and training services to adopters
become a regional volunteer, assist adopters with problems on line and in person
in your area or become an on line advisor answering questions for our adopters.
Short and long term local volunteer programs at swap hq
come here once a month or once a year, we don't care as long as you help when
you come, barracks style rooms are always available on the farm for free to
volunteers.
Become a friend of swap by becoming state and regional volunteers in every state
this can be anything from checking on horses, annual follow ups, doing farm
visits for us a approve an adopter, advising adopters with horses in the areas
of training and care, helping us find emergency fosters, helping us with rescues
in your area, helping raise money or sponsoring an event in your area.
Become a local chapter of swap
are you ready for a full time opportunity to do what we do, get ready this is
going to happen soon!! We are looking for full time people who are prepared to
devote their life to helping horses.
Be a "mini rescue"
buy a horse at auction or even buy one from your neighbor who is not caring for
the horse or doesn't have the time for it, get it healthy and trained (to the
best of your ability) and we will help you place it into a good home.
Weekend volunteer programs
come to our spring and fall farm work weekends, these are so much fun, its part
slumber party, part work party, a time to share ideas, dreams, great food and
fun with horses, these weekends are a great time to really feel that you are
doing something for so many horses. Sign up now the our next weekend, we have
space for about 6 ladies and 3 couples or 12 ladies, we also have a local b&b
that is wonderful with great rates.
Mother/daughter "help a horse" weekends
come and just enjoy our horses, groom, ride, just help them be better horses and
give them individual attention.
Big girl getaway weekends
sponsor a big girl getaway in your area during a show or event, have a great
horse event in your area? Have a home that can handle 5 to 10 ladies, doubled up
in bedrooms or on couch's, you provide the home, we bring the food, this is a
great way to get smart, share ideas, get the word out about swap and share your
favorite event, we just need about 6 months to put the word out and get people
signed up.
The power of the pen volunteer program
write news releases for your local papers or regional/national magazines and
stories about swap and swap horses.
Donate to swaps free educational library for adopters
donate educational materials to our library, books, video's, training cassettes
and cd's/dvd's, these will be available for adopters to sign out one month at a
time. We are working on our library software right now.
Veterinary and farrier internet hotline for adopters
are you a vet or farrier, do you have time to answer say 3 to 5 questions a
week? This is a way to help.
In addition to the SWAP Wish List, there are many things we can do to raise
funds and awareness for the program. These ideas range from easy to hard, and
allow you decide how much, or little, of your time you can spend. If you have
an idea for a fundraiser, please contact
us. All donations are tax deductible and
100% of the proceeds will benefits the Second Wind Adoption Program!!
Ø Donate $$.
Level of difficulty: Easy
Like most non-profit organizations, Second Wind can always put a donation like
this to good use! Don’t think because you only have a few extra dollars to
donate it wouldn’t help, because it would! Think about it! If everyone who
accessed our site last month donated just $1 we'd have an extra $200,000 in the
bank right now! We could pay off the mortgage for Crossed Sabers Stable and
solidify the future of Second Wind for years to come. To make a monetary
donation, you can mail a check to the farm, or easier yet send your donation by
calling Southern States and giving a credit card donation to our feed fund,
304-873-2261, talk to Ron or Perry.
Ø Donate Feed
Level of difficulty: Easy
If you’d like to donate feed for the horses you can contact our local Southern
States distributor by calling 304-873-2261. Tell them you'd like to make a
donation of feed to the account of the Crossed Sabers / Second Wind Adoption
Program.
Ø Donate expendable items
Level of difficulty: Easy
The farm is always in needs of everyday things such as horse supplies, office
and barn supplies. Are you placing an order for wormers soon? How about fly
spray, Betadine, antibiotic ointment, eye ointment, poultice, medicated shampoo,
cortaflex, icthamol, sheet cottons, bandages, Davis boots, or brushes? ...buy
an extra and send it to Second Wind.
Or, maybe you have some extra office supplies laying around? We can always use
things like floppy disks (for all the digital pictures we take) copy paper (for
all the applications we print) or printer cartridges (we use a Dell printer and Canon PC720 copier).
The 'dot com' stores like Walmart, Target, Home Depot or Lowe’s make it very
easy to help. Go to their website and have your donation or gift certificate
shipped straight to the farm!!
Donate your services!
Level of difficulty: Medium to Hard
Are you going to be in, or traveling through, eastern West Virginia? Are you a
mason, carpenter, welder or have some other trade skill? Contact Celeita for
the list of one day jobs that need to be done!
Greatest Need:
We have about
2500 feet of fencing to put up yet to totally transition the farm from cows.
Summer of 2004 we are installing a new 70 x 300 arena, electrical work in the
big barn so that all trough heaters can be running at the same time, fans
and ventilation are going into the big barn as well.
Volunteer help needed
100 good foster homes (at least 2 in each state) that can take at least one
horse, regardless of the horse’s description, these need to be professional
horse people, formally trained with commercial liability insurance, with
training experience.
State Representatives: At least 10 people in each state that have extensive
horse experience to follow up with adopters after the horse is placed, to check
on horses, to do site visits in order to approve people as adopters, assist
adopters with their horse problems, etc
Volunteer or reduced fee legal, accounting, vet or farrier pro bono assistance
Volunteer or reduced fee licensed electrician to do occasional work in the barn
Volunteer or reduced fee contractor to build saw dust and manure bins and put
cement pads at all doors for safety of people and horses, put in fencing and hot
water in barn, excavators for dozer work to do sloping around barns and
terracing needed every year from rain and erosion.
Normal
Monthly Expenses at HQ (2002 figures)
200. de-worming
300. ads
500. vet
200. equine dentist (this covers only 3 horses each month)
300. to 500. farrier (this does half the barn each month, the next month the
other half is done)
2500. grain (10 tons each month in pelleted feed, textured feed and equine
senior)
1080. hay (12 bales a day)
200. supplements and barn supplies
270. electric (3 barns and house)
130. vehicle insurance
250. farm insurance
1100. mortgage
1000. operating loan
200. repairs/misc
300. office supplies
220. sawdust/bedding
100. web site
117. aol and broadband internet (needed to do the web site)
200. phone
200. misc utilities (heat, oil, trash)
125. property taxes
1000. winter kitty savings
$10,692.00 a month before anyone is paid
$1100. stall cleaner/maintenance man, 1 full time and one part time employee in
the office/groom (1 to 3 days a week, even though we need them 5 days a week)
300. a month and one rider at $300. a month
$12,392. Total monthly expenses with 1 full time employee and one part time
employee that is paid
consistently, the executor does not take a salary (what we currently can afford and spend)
$148,704.00 per year with 2 employees, only shows standard expenses, does not
include unscheduled maintenance, illness/injury of horses, neglected/rescue or
problem horses, any legal or accounting support, problems with horses already
adopted, annual follow ups of adopted horses, horse recovery’s or transports,
does not include any additional labor or personnel support does not include
training and exercising the horses, does not provide any financial help to
foster homes.
148k per year (what we currently spend and raise from adoption fees and the
small donations we receive). It costs us $495.68. a month per horse with 25
horses here and on an average $1000. to place every horse in the program,
regardless of its location, which means that the horses not located here and
placed from other locations help pay for the horses located here.
980k per year is what is actually needed from our estimates to do a better job
for each horse, that includes paying less than 1/10 of that to payroll for one
trainer, one barn manager, one maintenance person, the executor, executive
assistant/office manager and one program manager. That is an average of 2 to 3k
per horse that will be spent on each horse for expenses during their stay in the
program.
