Greyhound Rescue Wales always needs volunteer support in our work.

 

Volunteers are needed to take on some of the practical tasks in re-homing the dogs – transporting them or taking phone-calls from adverts. We also need help organising fund-raising activities, helping out at street collections or at the various shows and events we attend each year.

 

 

Lyn Aitken is a longstanding member of Greyhound Rescue Wales and also serves on the Executive Committee. She has three dogs and gets involved in a variety of activities.  Here she gives a flavour of what you can expect if you help out with some of our events and a more in-depth picture of being involved  as a volunteer.   

 

Volunteering is a very rewarding aspect of Greyhound Rescue Wales and provides an important and sometimes vital back up to the organisation.  If you think that it is something you would consider, then you can help in the following ways. 

 

Fund Raising Activities

We attend shows or have our own fun dog shows through the year, in addition to sponsored walks.  This gives us another opportunity to raise funds.  In the past we have had various stalls including “bring and buy”, raffles, plants, cakes, cards and tombola.  We have a merchandise stall which is ongoing.  If you have any fresh ideas which you think would boost this side of our fund raising, please Contact Us. 

 

Street Collections

If you are able to join in with the street collections, you will find the details on our website or contact us by phone.  These collections can be fun and very rewarding, as apart from bringing in much needed funds, the greyhounds themselves attract a very positive reaction from the public, especially children.  We regularly get comments like “We’ve been told they make very good pets.”, “Isn’t it awful the way they are treated.”, “What is their history?”, “Are they easy to look after?”, “Good luck! You’re doing a great job.” and “Oh, they’re lovely dogs.”

 

We point out that money collected goes to funding the cost of kennelling the dozen or so greyhounds waiting to be adopted, plus jabs and neutering. This is ongoing.  As one dog is adopted there is always another waiting to come in.  There have been instances where children have not wanted to leave the dogs - At Tesco, Aberdare in 2008 an eight year old girl loved the dogs so much that she wanted to stay and help look after them.  Luckily she had patient parents who waited around for her.  She was eventually persuaded to leave as long as she could come back the next day. 

 

Pets At Home

Here the children were particularly attracted to the dogs as they were patient and calm.  A few two year olds took them for a walk around the store, accompanied by an adult - at the Monmouth branch in 2007 a father stopped with his young daughter and small son in his buggy.  The girl wanted to hold a dog on its lead.  The little boy started crying – we thought he was frightened, but it turned out he wanted to hold a dog too! The store “Pets at home” allows us to collect money at almost any time, as long as arrangements have been made in advance with the manager.  The bonus is we are allowed to take the dogs into the store with us. 

 

If you decide that you could help on these collections, a few hours would do.  The more greyhounds there are on these occasions the better, as they create a big impact and being so good natured, there is never any confrontation among the dogs. 

 

Individual members can take it upon themselves to organise fund raising events e.g. coffee mornings, raffles, collection boxes in your vet’s waiting room.  One of our members has an auction each year where friends bring donations and have fun bidding for items.

 

Re-homing and Transportation

Certain areas seem to have enough people to carry out tasks, but there are other areas where Greyhound Rescue Wales may be short of volunteers e.g. home checking and transport.  Getting involved is very satisfying and gives you a chance to be hands on and involved with the dogs – they then become much more than just a name or a photo on the website. 

 

If you would like to help in some way, then please contact us.

 

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