The following post is an archive of our GoFundMe campaign which began in 2020.
Hello everyone,
First of all let me start this update with a huge THANK YOU to all of you. Thank you to all our new donors and also to those of you who are supporting us continuously. I really can’t express how much this means to all of us and the animals, but be assured that we are immensely grateful to all of you – beyond words.
As the summer goes on, time just seems to be speeding by this year. We have established a good routine at the farm that allows us a balance between taking care of cleaning, feeding and other farm chores as well as providing the animals with the attention and love they enjoy and also having the time for some really nice chats with people dropping by at the fence. There are many Victoria locals as well as some visitors to the island who happen to stop by to inquire about the animals, their care and the farm. And even though we manage our day to day farm life relatively well we came to realize more and more that there is something really important missing: The animals as well as the staff absolutely miss the people – all our visitors and all our amazing volunteers. We still receive messages from our volunteers and some of them stop by at the fence to see the animals they usually help take care off and chat with the staff.
Our farm is deeply rooted in this community and relies on its support. Every season the farm has about a hundred volunteers who help in different capacities depending on their personal talent and ability. This includes a huge diversity of people, a lot more than I can mention here. There are for example young kids together with their parents, teenagers, retirees, people with special abilities accompanied by their support workers, busy students, part time workers and shift workers, singles and couples, international exchange students, … and this only names a few. Aside from the “newcomers” each year, many of them have been volunteering at the farm for years. They often spent a good part of their shifts directly with the animals. They always work hard in their own time to help us take care of the animals, provide information to the visitors, keep the farm clean and tidy and of course give the animals lots of love. Through this commitment and dedication they have really become an precious part of our farm team. Each year around the end of August we host our annual volunteer barbecue to thank all our volunteers for their excellent help. As the farm is funded by donations, their volunteer work is simply invaluable to us and helps us greatly to keep the farm running. They all do a tremendous job; the farm would not be the same without them. Our awesome volunteers really help to make this little farm to a happy, safe, friendly and inclusive place. They make it feel complete.
I genuinely just like to say that I understand that this year must be hard for them, too. With the risk of Covid 19 around all of us we decided to work at the farm with a very small group of staff members to keep contact between us down to a bare minimum. But we really miss our volunteers: we miss their help, their kindness, their support and we miss sharing our experiences alongside the animals with them. And I can only imagine how much they miss the animals and the companionship we all share at the farm. This is not forever, we are looking forwards to have them all back at the farm when the general health situation becomes safer again. We all hope for a better future.
As we are in the last stretches of this summer with luckily great weather, there is still time to see the animals live but through the fence. So if you enjoy observing the baby goats play and explore while the big ones relax in the sunshine, see how Peanut Butter and her friends the donkeys always hang out together and even share their food, watch the alpacas Osmond and Acorn when they get to roam large areas of the farm most afternoons, follow the chickens along the fence and maybe even catch a glimpse of our pig Maple when he sleeps on his bed, then just drop by the farm to take a walk alongside the fence. The staff are there every day taking care of the animals. We happily answer your questions and are always very grateful for any donation as we still haven’t reached our fundraising goal that we require to cover the costs until next season.
The animals will all remain in town for a couple more weeks and after Labour Day we will begin to move them back to the winter farm.
Best wishes to all of you. Enjoy the sunshine and stay safe, healthy and happy,
Claudia
