Although Sukie denies being the collective memory of the ferret world, I
thank her for being willing to do the research on when we first formed
SOS.  It takes a certain mind (which I don't have) to be patient and
thorough like that.
 
The people other than Georgia and Ela whom I named in that post way back
when didn't have time to become part of SOS after all, but Karen Trask
had her own project for the shelters which is worth mentioning.  She
worked at a large hospital which discarded working equipment that it no
longer needed and expired medical supplies which were still perfectly
usable (like ringers).  For a while she was able to collect these for
large shelters that had a lot of medical cases.  I wonder if anyone on
the list now would have similar access?
 
There was a bad time or two when people who prefer to jump to conclusions
without checking out the facts questioned what Support Our Shelters was
doing, but the FMLers who had known us for a long time were quick to
defend us.  Part of the problem was simply that we didn't post very often
(back in the days before we had such a variety of fundraising activities)
and so new members didn't know what we did.
 
The real hard times for me were the initial years when we received so few
donations that we were hard pressed to send $20 each to 20 shelters at
the end of a year.  I think this was largely because we hadn't existed
long enough to have credibility.  We wanted so very badly to be able to
help substantially, and we knew that the value of $20 was mainly in
letting the shelter moms know that someone cared about how hard their
jobs are.
 
Thinking about that, it occurs to me that the real accomplishment of
S.O.S. is to encourage the habit of giving to the shelters as an
integral part of what it means to be part of the ferret community on the
FML.  The FML is an amazing community, really.  Just look around and
compare.  Maybe some of us overreact a bit now and then... Maybe we
bicker and flame.... Maybe we're not perfect... But boy do we ever
know how to share what we have for the good of the ferrets.
 
It is a good thing to be able to say that S.O.S. could indeed survive
just fine without me or any particular individual in our group.  What we
have going is solid enough for anyone to take over.  I consider that a
success.  I never foresaw that S.O.S. would be a major reason for my
spending so little time on the FML itself, but this means that there is
plenty of accounting for me to do behind the scenes and that part is fine
by me.  The newer members of S.O.S. have all the personality anyway :)
 
BUT the members of the FML are still the real heart and soul of Support
Our Shelters because you are the people who give and give and give for
the sake of the ferrets.
 
Blessings,
Judith
--
* * * Support Our Shelters * * *
          100 Walsh Road
        Lansdowne, PA 19050
           610-626-6647
 
Helping the Shelters of the Ferret Mailing List
    http://SupportOurShelters.org
 
Ask me how you can help a shelter near you.
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Tax-Deductible Donations through PayPal:
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[Posted in FML issue 4397]