Warm Fingers, Toes, Water Bowls... and Hearts

Greetings and THANK YOU again for contributing to our Giving Tuesday campaign to raise funds for winter gear for VINE Sanctuary.

While we did not raise as much as we'd hoped, generous donors like you did make it possible for us to outfit our hard-working animal care team with the personal gear they needed to get through a hard winter.

Thanks to you, we were able to buy:

• Two big boxes of gloves to store in the barn for anytime someone needed a fresh pair
• One warm and weather-resistant coat for each team member
• One pair of insulated winter muck boots for each team member
• One set of removable ice cleats for each team member

Because we were buying many pairs, we were able to get bulk discounts on the boots and the gloves. The savings allowed us to also purchase four new snow shovels.

Every winter is hard here in Vermont, and this winter has been no exception to that rule. I can't count the number of snow storms we've endured. And, because the temperatures have been swinging wildly between thaws and deep freezes, the accumulation of ice at the downhill part of the sanctuary we call "the valley" is especially thick and slippery this year.

But I have to say that our staff morale has been higher than usual this winter, and I do truly believe that it was the boots, gloves, and coats that made the difference, for two reasons:

1. Just feeling warmer makes it easier to cope with hard outdoor work in the winter.
2. Staff members knew that our supporters got together to buy the gear, and that made them feel cared about and valued.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it can feel lonely to lug heavy jugs of water from coop to coop in the middle of a snowstorm, but this winter our animal care team members felt that you were with them -- literally, in the form of boots -- every step of the way. We've still got some more months of cold weather to go, but I wanted to thank you for that again right now.

Sincerely,

pattrice