Some people say that Romania’s problems aren’t ours – I along with so many others, can’t turn my back on suffering. It’s easy to say “I don’t want to see those photos on facebook”. But if we didn’t see them and try to help then the world won’t progress. There is a huge divide in Romania. The rich are very rich driving around in Ferrari’s and the poor are very poor. An EU country not having homes with basic features such as running water or toilets, is something which is surely unimaginable in this day and age. With all this in mind you wonder how the people are expected to care for animals when their own population isn’t being cared for.
ATB decided to get involved.
First off ATBShop fostered Chloe, a 2 year old dog found outside a school in Romania. It’s true to say that everyone that met this gentle little soul fell in love with her. She soon found a wonderful loving forever home with a wonderful family after Christmas. ATB decided that we could still do more. Luke one of the local skaters and shop assistants from ATB along with Keith from SNAP’s (Swindon Needs A Proper Skate Park) and his friend tripped out to Romania to save 15 dogs. They took out vital supplies such as beds, bowls, blankets, food and medicine for the dogs and battled an adverse weather conditions including a “Code Red Snow” storm. It wasn’t an easy trip as they were sleep deprived and kept falling behind schedule and the roads were so dangerous at stages. One night they had to turn back as the road was becoming meters deep in snow. That was such a good call on their behalf as people were found trapped dead in their cars on that same road the next day. Fortunately they made it over safely and managed to pick up all 15 dogs and brought them back into the UK with no more hiccups or delays. The boys said the trip over was a real adventure but saving those dogs made it all worthwhile.
After the boys trip over to Romania they decided that we could run a charity day at the ATBShop Skate Warehouse, to help fund a new no kill shelter in Romania for Paws2Rescuse – an organisation set up to save street dogs in Romania. ATBShop also decided to support and sponsor a dog from another no kill shelter call Negri’s Place, based over in Constanta. The money will be used to help bring a small dog called “Prince Albert” over. When Albert is rehomed then his adoption money which ATB will have raised, will go back to the Negri’s shelter to help save more dogs.
As always with a charity day we needed to call on some help from friends. First off we needed prizes for our raffle. We called up Shiner Distribution and they really came through for us hooking us with with an Anti Hero deck worth £54.99 and a set of Bones Wheels worth £34.99. The skaters were very excited! We put a call in with Grit scooters who very kindly sent us around £180 worth of wheels which we gave away in our raffle and in mini competitions throughout the day. We also had gifts donated to us from parents, Swindon Rolla Derby girls, Madd Scooters and Keen Distribution who hooked us up with two epic tees, Skate Tea (which rocked) and loads of stickers.
We also needed some cake makers. We put a shout out on Facebook and loads of people got involved. Big thanks to our local Rolla Derby girls who baked for us, Sarah Kemp and for Andrea Smith who made the some amazing doggie cakes and to the mums who all arrived from all over and donated cakes on the day. We also had the most amazing cake made by a wonderful lady called Leni Haylett. This cake was 2 tiers high and was decorated with the Paws2Rescuse logo and loads of sugar doggies. Everyone was shocked and surprised at the effort which had gone into making this cake. We decided to raffle the cake off as it was too good for us to cut into.
On the day we ran a parents club from 10-12pm and played tons of party games for the kids where they had a chance to win prizes. We also had Kim in from Epic Staff in Swindon, running a face painting stall and balloon modelling for charity.
The day was a huge success raising a total of £430 –Giving Paws2rescuse and Negri’s Place £215 each. Everyone said it was one of the BEST charity’s days we had run and that was mostly down to the fact that everyone pitched in.