Nancy asked me to post the following ideas and let everybody
know that she has reserved the Living Room in the
Collingswood Community Center for Tuesday, February 22 at
7:00pm so we can get together and discuss everyone's ideas
and start planning.  Could you please send her an email
(Welshzoo@...) or call her at (856) 366-4901 or (856)
854-4628 and let her know if you can come to the meeting (she'll
bring some snacks). 

Thanks,
Rich Greene & Cinder
________________________________

Hello Everyone,
 
  Please check out the Cyrus Mejia 
(  http://www.cyrusmejia.com/index.html )  web site and come up
with ideas of what we can do here locally.   I'm really excited
about this,  I think it could be a lot of fun, as well as educational
and make some money for the stray fund.  Hope to hear from all
of you soon. 
 
Thanks again for all you do for the animals,
 
Nancy Welsh

_______________________________________________
Hello Everyone:
I have an idea for a community art project/ fundraiser for the
"Collingswood Stray Animal Fund/ humane education for adults
and children all in one.  Below is an excerpt from an e-mail I sent
to Mr. King the High School art teacher.  This sort of explains the
beginning thoughts of my idea.  There is alot of room for it to
grow.  I'd like to have a meeting and get together will anyone who
might be interested in helping with the project.  THere is the
physical part of putting together the art work, but there is also a
lot of administrative organization to do also.  I'm really excited
about this and hope this will eb a great community project. 
Anyone is welcome, you don't have to be a Collingswood
resident.  Looking at the Cyrus Mejia web site and the link for the
575 project will help you understand it much better.  We have
Cyrus Mejia's blessing to do this.  I spoke to him:  he just wants
pictures of what we do.  
 
575 is the average number of homeless, unwanted dogs and
cats that are euthanized in the world every hour of every day.
3 to 5 days is the average length of stay in a shelter for a cat
before they are euthanized.   
 
So, if you are interest, please e mail me or call me (numbers at
the bottom) so I can begin to compose of list of people who are
interested and contact you when I have an exact time and place
to meet.  
 
Thanks,
 
Nancy Welsh   

Please read below:concept for our project

 I have any idea for a community art project and was wondering if
you and some of your students might want to be involved.  The
project will help raise money for the "Collingswood Stray Animal
Fund" which is maintained in an account by Brad Stokes the
Borough Administrator.  Melinda and I began this fund shortly
after I started doing animal control and we found that when there
was a cat or dog who was sick or injured, the local vets would
not treat them until they knew how the bill was going to be paid
(and after my husband realized how much money I spent from
our personal account ).  So, now several times a year Melinda
and I do fundraisers to keep this fund going and we get
donations from people in town when we put an article in the
Town Crier. I now have a small group of adult volunteers who
work with me for fundraising and foster care.  The next step is
Humane Education and this project will encompass  fundraising
and humane education. 
 
     Here is a link for Cyrus
Mejia http://www.cyrusmejia.com/index.html   who is both an
artist and one of the founders of Best Friends Animal Society and
Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah http://www.bestfriends.org/.  Cyrus has
an art exhibit called the 575 Project.. This 575 Project is one of
the most moving things I have ever seen.  I would like to have a
Collingswood 575 Project, hopefully with the help of you and your
students.  I would even like to get the grammar schools involved
if that is possible.  I think we could do some great humane
education during the process and then raise a decent amount of
money by showing the project in town.  Either at the Community
Center. the High School or the Library, perhaps at one of the
"Second Saturday" events in town.   I thought maybe we could
even get a special space at the May Fair to let everyone see our
exhibit.  I would like to get local businesses to sponsor it to help
pay for the cost of materials.  Pay particular attention to the dog
house of leashes and collars in the 575 project.  I was thinking
we might do a bridge like that.  There is a poem called the
"Rainbow Bridge"
http://www.petloss.com/poems/maingrp/rainbowb.htm which
comforts people when their pets pass on and tells about where
their pets go and that they wll someday be reunited with them. 
The collars and leashes on our bridge may never have someone
to reunite with.  I will have the two  local shelters who take in
strays and do euthanize, save collars leashes and chains for
me.  It won't take very long before we have more than enough.  I
think I might even have someone to build a wooden bridge for
the frame.  Of course, this idea isn't written in stone, if you have
something else or others to add that would be great too.  I can
get in touch with Carol at the Community Center and we could
have a meeting of people who are interested in helping with the
project. 

I thought the grammar school kids could do some projects too:
maybe something to do with the 3 to 5 days part.  I have lots of
humane education handouts that are grade appropriate too. 
Maybe even a poster contest for them.
 
I also thought I might advertise for people to submit a photo of
their rescued pet with a short story written on the back about
where their pet came from and have a "monument of rescued
pets".  People could make a donation to submit the photo of their
pet. 
 
Okay, I'm just rambling now.  I have a lot of ideas flying through
my brain.  Please let me know what you think.  You can e mail
me or you can reach me at (856) 366-4901 (cell phone)    or 
854-4628 home. 
 
Thanks,
 
Nancy Welsh 
Welshzoo@...