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| From The President's Stall |
You are here: Newsletters > June 2005 > From The President's Stall
By Debbie Frank
Spring has finally sprung, though, this was not a bad winter this year at ERRI headquarters. We did have a few rough weeks and some truly wonderful volunteers, who are now known affectionately as our "Snow and Flu Angels", came to bale us out helping to feed, muck and care for our horses while we were down. We recognized these lifesavers at our annual Volunteer Recognition Dinner, as well as our many board members and volunteers.
We had three special awards this year. Advisory Board Vice-President Sue Adler and ERRI volunteer Brett Baier received honors as our ERRI Volunteer(s) of the Year 2005. We gave a special Above and Beyond award to Laura W. Baier, our Advisory Board President, newsletter editor, and general organizational expert. We also recognized our grant and monetary patrons. As we do every year, we really enjoyed the evening "fancied-up" and dining out. A BIG thank you to Susan Eckert for planning the dinner, Virginia Crews for providing wine for the guests, and An Poitin Stil for accommodating us.
In our December 2004 newsletter, ERRI paid a "Ten Year Tribute" to our generous board members, volunteers and donors. As we had feared, we did leave some wonderful people out. Please see page 3 for a list of additional donors and special people. Also, below we wanted to recognize those who have already contributed more than $100 this year. Thank you so much for your continued support.
For the first time since we started this non-profit organization, we are out of the red. We have had to down-size our efforts a bit to rein-in our finances, but we are hoping to keep growing as our budgetary restrictions allow. Unfortunately, many other rescues like us are also overwhelmed with horses. A hallmark of our program has been our effort to place horses in appropriate, permanent homes for the rest of their lives. While this sometimes means our horses stay with us longer while we search for that perfect situation, we feel this thorough research is in the best interest of our rescues and their future, not to mention the safety of their new owners. ERRI is proud of our track record in horse placement. We have had very few horses returned to us for various reasons.
With summer comes ERRI's wonderfully fun 6th Annual Benefit Joust for ERRI in July, the Maryland Horse Council Benefit Dinner at Laurel Park in August, and the Shawan Downs Legacy Chase event in September. ERRI is proud to be one of the award recipients at the Horse Council affair, so do try to come.
See you Around,
Debbie