05/10/2024
You gave us a second chance
When we went from full production goat dairy, to vegan cheeze producers, to then animal sanctuary, we never imagined the difficulties of running a Sanctuary.
I had to look back at my IRS non profit filing and that was done in 2014, but I believe we officially opened as a Sanctuary at the end of 2015. Wow, does time fly!
Anyways, after all the hardship of the initial years of our Sanctuary, to getting some good traction before our move to Florida, then finally landing upon this property with all the greenery around it, and tons of space for our animals, we thought everything was PERFECT.
When the hurricane ripped through our property, we were praying the night it happened, almost a week and a half ago. We did the best we could do to huddle all our animals in the only barn that could sustain the winds and we just prayed. It felt like we could get swept away at any point.
Julian and I, with all the dogs, and some of our baby animals a few goats, a piglet, and a calf trying to survive the night.
When we walked outside the next morning, barely slept, we saw the damage it had done. We told each other, that was it. All of our almost 10 years of running the Sanctuary, done.
After we sent a newsletter and did our usual posts on social media, we know our amazing supporters would help, but what we didn't expect was so many others reading our story, and having it shared so many times. Wow.
After all is said and done, we were able to reach $10,000+ in donations. With our previous fundraiser for the last hurricane, and the most recent one courtesy of hurricane Helene, we should have enough to complete a rebuild of a medium to large sized barn, that is windproof, and can stand up to 100+ mph winds.
We have tons of damage to our entire property, plumbing issues, electrical issues, and obviously the barns. But, the great news is that we have sent a few people out to get quotes on a new barn rebuild, and it can be done, and will be done very soon.
We can't believe it, Julian and I could not believe after suffering through all of this, that we still have a chance. Our animals are confined to sleeping in a small barn at night, but we hope that it will only be for a month at best. We need the concrete foundation poured, the framing of the new barn, and then putting all the walls up, overhangs up, and roof, and we can be back in business.
We figure after we have the structure in place, we can run electricity, and install a bunch of fans for the hot summer months.
Thank you to everyone who donated, sent us messages of hope, shared our story, shared the posts, and most importantly, thank you to everyone who cares about the work we do. We do this for the animals. We do it to make a change in this world for them. Thank you for being a part of this movement.