For Those Less Fortunate

Volunteerism runs in my family. My parents were recently feted for their 25 years of volunteering for the Red Cross. In their 80's now, they still serve selflessly on a regular basis - they work at the local hospital every Monday, Daddy in the pharmacy and Mom in the Information Booth. On other occasions during the month, they can be seen at various locations doing free blood pressure screenings. During elections, they are always on hand to work the polls. Until recently, Daddy drove ill Veteran's to the Veteran's Hospital for the DAV. They are amazing people and I hold them in very high regard, not just because they are my parents, but because they set such a good example to follow.


H and I try to do our share, but nothing near what Mom and Daddy do. For our part, we volunteer at the local animal shelter, The Ark, shuttling animals back and forth to the veterinary clinic for spaying/neutering or whatever needs to be done for these poor, unfortunate animals that have been left to fend for themselves.

Their website has a wealth of information for anyone interested in helping out. They are truly one of the organizations we enjoy helping.
www.thearkpets.org

For another way to help animal shelters, read below.

Feed an Animal In Need!

Over ten million animals are abused, neglected or abandoned yearly. Visit The Animal Rescue Site http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/home every day to give a bowl of food to an abandoned animal -- at no cost to you -- and participate in the fight to save animals in need.

Funding for nutritious food, paid for by site sponsors, is generated when you click on the "Feed an Animal in Need" button on the Home page of The Animal Rescue Site at http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/home

The number of animals helped by the site depends on the number of visitors to The Animal Rescue Site. Please click every day, and encourage friends and family members to do so as well.

Please make visiting The Animal Rescue Site part of your daily routine and help spread the word to your friends and family!

We also help out at our local Veteran's Club whenever needed. Just this week, we helped fill 120 fruit baskets that would be given to elderly folks who were either home bound or had no one else with whom to share the season.

Our friend, Mike, is the webmaster of the franklinmaine.net website, also known as "The Tugwassah Tattlah", a very funny and informative website regaling the goings on in Downeast Maine. He keeps things ship shape at these functions with snappy Naval order.

This past summer, H and I also helped landscape the front of the clinic where I work.

Unfortunately, one can only do so much and there is truly so much to be done for those less fortunate, so we try to do what we can within the confines of our budget and time constraints.

On a lighter note, yesterday's knitting class was once again fun and we kept our instructor quite busy with all our questions. I had been having a horrible time with the new shawl I'm knitting and had torn out the same three rows several times before becoming so frustrated I could hardly speak. I threw the thing into my bag and just waited til class. I'm happy to report that Barbara got me back on track and I'm now zipping right along again.