ESRA-GA/AL

ESRA volunteers joined in with the festivities and had a booth at the event! We spread the word about rescue and raised $110 in donations.

On January 23, 2010 , twenty of our beautiful Rescued Springers strutted their stuff and showed off their new families, during our Parade of Rescue at the annual Springer Specialty show in Lawrenceville, GA.

Thanks to the Chattahoochee English Springer Spaniel Club of Greater Atlanta for their warm welcome of ESRA to their event, and for all of their support.

It was “Bark in the Park” last night at the Gwinnett County Braves (triple A minor league team) new stadium/field in Buford, GA. Sandi Garris & I attended with our Springers Sam & Max (respectively). We all had a great time. It started out pretty warm, but the sun started going down pretty soon and a nice cool breeze kept us from getting to hot. We used umbrellas to shade the dogs (Good idea, Zipppy!) until the sun went behind the stadium.

The berm area was filled with fans with their pooches. At times it appeared there were more fans out in the berm area with dogs than in the stadium seats!

As we went in, there were some folks giving away leashes and coupons for free exams as an marketing tool for their clinic. She reached to give me a leash and then noticing the ‘Rescue’ t-shirts that Sandi & I were wearing, said “ oh, you can probably use lots of these”. And before I even knew what she had, she reached back to her display table and scooped 5 new leashes into my bag.

The highlight of the evening for Sam was when we were joined by a 4 month old Springer named

Daisy Mae and her mom Debbie, who just naturally made their way down to where we were sitting. Sam & Miss Daisy had a good old time playing together. At 11 years of age, Max thought Daisy Mae was a cute little terrorist with way to much energyJ. Max preferred to join a couple of you (human) boys watching the pitchers warming up in the bullpen right in front of us.

The game was pretty good too. The G-Braves had a 2-run lead for a time, before falling to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees late in the game. Those dang Yankees! The new stadium looks great. I look forward to attending more games there this year.

Springer Specialty Show is a Huge success for ESRA:

We all had a fabulous time this weekend at the Atlanta Specialty Show. We had an awesome booth and a marvelous turn out. It was so exciting to get together, to see old and new friends and especially to see those wonderful rescue dogs take the stage in their parade. They were perfect, each and everyone.

There were many ESRA folks there joining in the fun and helping out with the booth and parade, from GA, AL, MS, NC, SC, & FL. We also had a fabulous dinner out together on Saturday evening. Thanks so much to all who joined in and made this happen; it takes a village and this is certainly a wonderful village to be a part of.

I am deathly afraid to try to name all who helped out as there were so many, but I do want to recognize the efforts of Don Lloyd who many of you may know from past Nationals & Specialties. Don was tireless in his efforts to raise funds in the ‘Walk a Mile’ program. He made multiple rounds both Saturday & Sunday of all the folks showing and attending. His efforts alone raise almost $1000. The total for the weekend’s donation & sales: $3,272!!!!

Many thanks to all who turned out for the event, helped with the booth, the parade, pictures, the dinner……….

Thanks to the Chattahoochee English Springer Spaniel Club of Greater Atlanta for their warm welcome of ESRA to their event, and for all of their support.

You have already seen other emails with links to pictures and will likely see more from others who attended as well. I’ve included a few pictures below, but you can also view these and more by following the link below.

http://gaalesra.shutterfly.com/261

nita watson

The booth was so large it take two pictures for me to get it in.

Plus, there was the “Walk a Mile” annex table.

Much thanks to Zippy Cooper (in the grey jacket), who is the show chair for the Chattahoochee English Springer Spaniel Club of Greater Atlanta. They host this event and we appreciate Zippy getting us into this event every year.

On the far right behind the sewing machine is Carol Sanderson, who hardly left that spot all weekend. This is where she stayed creating her fantastic custom embroidered items that were very popular. Carol is still working today on orders she got in at the event!

Sheila Connelly drove out from Mississippi and kept the parade participants at their best groom!

Barbara Welty & Debbie Kersey never slowed down, keeping adoptions going while keeping up with the show.

Debbie Kersey, Don Lloyd and the famous boot!

Our FABULOUS Parade participants.

September 14, 2008

Hi All,

I know I have been bombarding you all lately with requests for transport help, so I thought I would take a minute to report on some successful results from this weekend.

The pictures attached are from one of the drivers that helped get Randy (ESRA springer) and Trixie (NBRAN brittany) from their foster homes in GA to their new homes in MD & NJ.

ESRA volunteers also helped on transports to get Kendall, Razor& Brother (A&B English setters), Murphy & Zoe (adorable beagles) and Duke (ABR brittany) all to new homes or foster homes this weekend. Oh yeah, the little Rat Terriers made it to FL as well.

And that is just a drop in the bucket to all the dogs, cats, etc… that were moved this weekend into safe rescues or forever homes, all at the same time that the price of gas jumped 50 cents or more a gallon. What a wonderful group of people to be associated with.

Thanks to all helped this weekend and so many other times.

Nita Watson - Transport Coordinator
English Springer Rescue America, Georgia & Alabama

I have been remiss at reporting on our booth at Petapalooza a couple of weeks ago. Whew! How time flies.

Well, it was an absolutely beautiful day at Suwanee’s town green. This is the third year for this event in Suwanee and the second year that ESRA has participated. This event has grown by leaps and bounds each year; this year it was covered with tents/booths from all around the world of pet care, agility and obedience rings/shows, as well as live bands and numerous pet clinics. If you have never been to this event, make plans to attend next year. You won’t be sorry.

I’d like to thank Carol Sanderson, Angel Reed, Beth Campbell and Kelly Blake for turning out to man the booth. And Sandi Garris, who came out to help set-up despite having a terrible cold. Special mention to ESRA’s own “Roscoe” whose winning attitude kept bringing in interested parties to our booth, while still sporting a winter coat in the warm Spring sun. And a BIG thank you to our on-site Springer ambassadors, Sammie Sanderson, Andy & Millie Campbell.

We had a number of potential adopters stop by and raised $400 for ESRA. Woo-Woo!

It was a success on Sunday, February 3rd at Pickneyville Park, Norcross,GA. The only local and famous volunteer's that were not there was our Carol, David and Rebecca.
In Attendance were Monica, Becky,Sandi, Mickey and Marilyn Creek, Beth, Marilyn Gorman, Nita and myself, plus all our dogs. Paul Henderson who adopted our loveable Tony, came with two of his other Springers! It was wonderful to see Tony! Also, Andrea and Chris brought Kennedy! Kennedy is one of Lucy's puppies. Lucy had 9 puppies December 4, 2003. It is great to see everyone! Andrea is going to get me information for another outing next month in Decatur. Take care everyone!

Please wish Becky Junkins a safe move to PA we will miss her down here! Becky has done a lot for ESRA in just a short time. Thank You Becky!

Hi Everyone,

This past weekend was the annual English Springer Spaniel Specialty Show in Lawrenceville, GA,

hosted by the Chattahoochee English Springer Spaniel Club of Greater Atlanta. This event is loads of fun for all and this year was no different. Historically, the weather for this event is dreadful and this year was no exception. Exceeding the chilled rain of past years, this year brought in snow and sleet, which threatened to shut down the whole metro Atlanta area (while it may be pretty, we southerners are ill prepared for dealing with the icy aftermath and frozen roadways).

Still, this stalwart group of volunteers and adopters persevered and were rewarded with a very enjoyable and successful event for ESRA. AND our worst fears of the consequences of weather never materialized, as the wind came in prior to Saturday night's freeze, leaving the roadways safe and dry.

I'm not even going to attempt to name all the volunteers who made it to this wonderful event, but we were blessed with an amazing group of ESRA volunteers and adopters, not only from all over the metro Atlanta area , but also from the Georgia coast, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, North and South Carolina. What a wonderful group indeed!!!

I do want to make special mention of Barbara Welty our fearless leader and state coordinator whose excitement and energy kept everyone going, going, going; Carol Sanderson, our crafty Events Committee Chairperson; Becky Junkins and Beth Campbell who organized the Parade of Rescued dogs (Becky also provided the delicious taco soup and chicken soup to nourish and warm us at the same time) Sandi Garris, our sales lady extraordinaire; Sheila Connelly with her masterful grooming; Eileen Parker who stepped in everywhere and anywhere help was needed; David Latimer who was on hand to record this event photographically and Sue Schroer who did an absolutely awesome job of introducing our parade participants and sharing their personal stories with the show attendees. I am sure there was not a dry eye in the house as these beauties took their turn around the ring.

Many thanks to all those who attended and to all who made generous donations to our fantastic POR goody bags, home cooking and sale items. We (ESRA) also took this opportunity to recognize all of the contributions and hard work of Dr. Joe Gaston, a local veterinarian and his clinics, in the care of ESRA dogs over the years, including several taking part in our POR. We would not be able to do what we do for these Springers without the help of the medical community and Dr. Gaston is a shining example of that help. Two gorgeous certificates (one for each clinic), created by Carol Sanderson, signed by Caryn Pola and Barbara Welty, and then beautifully framed by Mickey Creek were presented to Dr. Gaston prior to the Parade of Rescued Dogs.

I know the weather made it difficult or impossible for some to make it this year, but we did have a wonderful Parade of Rescued Dogs including the following participants: Sandy Danielson with Annie, Beverly Blair with Harry, Leslie Allen with Niles, Rebecca Latimer with Glory, Steven Bachmeyer with Bebop, Mickey & Marilyn Creek with Tony & Maggie, Dr. Susan Haight with Patches, Cindy & Katie Peterson with Gertie & Maddie, Pete & Ann Hall with Bosley & Mollie. And for all who could not make it this year - there's always next year. We look forward to seeing you there.

To top it all off, there are checks on the way to Suzanne totaling $2740!!!!! WOO WOOOOOOOO!

We also collected 8 used cell phones to be recycled (funds to go to ESRA) and sold 13 of David's "What's Cooking, Cuzzin?" art/cookbooks, (profits to go to ESRA).

And for the icing on the cake, Carol Sanderson won a wire crate as part of the raffle put on by the host club, which will be available for use by our local foster homes.

Please click here to view photos from this wonderful event, and keep checking for new photos being added over the next few days as they come in from additional participants.

nita watson
flowery branch, ga
volunteer, english springer rescue america

I am happy to report that our visit to Petsmart this past Saturday & Sunday for the Santa Claws pictures resulted in our hard working crew taking a total of 85 pictures for the event. This means that ESRA will be receiving a check from Petsmart in the amount of $425.00.

Our volunteers for the event were Kris Riha, who took on the part of Santa and did a marvelous job, Millie Christopher, Patty Howell, Traci Manuel (and her springer Mollie), Angie Epling, Phyllis Chan and myself. It was a fun time and we're looking forward to next year.

We had a beautiful day and a marvelous turnout for our FIRST Petco event in Georgia yesterday. We had several interested potential adopters talk to us, so hopefully we will see some good applications come from this. We also made $58.01 in donations and enjoyed each others company:-).

ESRA volunteers for this event were Beth & Walt Campbell, Sue Schroer, Ann Mansell (Ann's daughter & granddaughter also dropped by), Sandi Garris, Becky Junkins, Mickey Creek, Ray & Margie Carroll, Ray & Monica Smith and me:-).

Springer ambassadors for this event were marvelous, perfectly charming representatives of their breed: Millie & Duke Campbell, Lady Schroer, Beau Mansell, Max Watson, Charlie Carroll, Bailey Smith and fosters Tucker (formerly known as Tank) and Tony. If I missed anyone, my sincerest apologies

Thanks to everyone who turned out and to Kelly Blake who hooked us up for this event. Kelly had a family emergency and was not able to make it, but we sure hope everything turned out well.

The first weekend in October was a great time to be in Lexington, KY for "The Nationals". Several of our ESRA-GA/AL team got together for the highly successful (and fun) ESRA dinner/auction event. Then we enjoyed the show and rescue parade (sniff-sniff) the next day. On Saturday evening the crew had dinner together to discuss how to organize our newly formed team. Thanks to all who attended.

Please click here for more pictures.