Rescue Journal

what are we looking for?

Carol  ·  Nov. 11, 2009

contests like the shelter challenge are an opportunity to define what we want to accomplish here.
do we want to be number 1..and if so, at what cost?...how far will we go to get votes?

me, not very far.

do we just want the prize money? is that the reason to participate in this?

me...not really. the thousand dollars is nice if it comes cleanly and it would pay for prudence's mammary tumour removals tomorrow.
but a thousand dollars is spent in the blink of an eye in rescue and i am interested in more long term than a blink.

so what else is there?...well really quite alot and it is more long lasting.
we could i guess find hundreds of people to vote for us each day who really know or care nothing for saints. but what do people not interested in animal rescue have to offer besides votes? not much i think.

it is the people who are interested in animal rescue that have a lot to offer us all. they go on to the shelter rescue challenge site..they vote for whoever it is that they support.
and while they are there, do you think they sneak a peak at who the other rescues are, and what they are doing? maybe even rescues from far away?

i think they do..because i look too. i am interested in all kinds of rescue in all kinds of ways, in all kinds of places. rescue interests me so when given the easy chance, i look around. i peek over into manitoba, i look down into tennesse, i look at some of the places listed internationally. i see lot's of good things happening out there, i see lot's of ways (if i wasn't so busy or i had more money) that i could help.

i see new ideas out there that i never thought of yet.

these shelter challenge contests are not just about who wins...who cares? a thousand dollars we don't have anyway is not going to change any of our worlds...but the exposure for all of us, the opportunity to see more that is out there with very little effort (cuz i don't have a lot of time to web surf)...that is the real value in all of this.

there are small shelters from small communities that will never make it into even the top 50. and yet these are good shelters with good people that do very good work that just do not have the endless networks of voters available to them.

so what? they won't win the thousand dollars..well maybe we won't either because we won't play the getting around the voting game (one person, one vote)

but that doesn't mean that each shelter listed on the canadian shelter list can't in some way benefit in more ways than just a bit of cash.

i might be reading about your shelter tonight, someone else might be too. you might be reading about another shelter and learning something new for you.

money isn't everything and winning is in the eye of the beholder.

we were number one last time around...but for who..all of canada? all of BC? all of the saints supporters who kindly voted for us?

i would rather be number one for the animals..that is what really counts. so where ever we are in the standings today dear friends..please don't worry too much. i am reading other rescue sites and learning and others are reading ours.
i think that is the real value in the shelter challenge..you win by challenging yourself internally and taking the time to read.

Comments

Chris T

I blogged about the Shelter Challenge today too. Here is my link: http://shihtzustaff.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/the-shelter-challenge/