Christmas Donkeys At Sainsburys

Christmas Donkeys At Sainsburys
Shoppers at Sainsburys at Marsh Mills in Plympton had the chance to meet two of our donkeys from the Ivybridge EST Centre, Monty and Merlin on Friday 25th November 2011.  They added some festive spirit as they were resplendent in their red and white (fake) fur trimmed coats to keep them warm, and of course specially made hats.

The reason we were there was that this particular branch of Sainsburys has chosen the Ivybridge EST (the Elizabeth Svendsen Trust for Children and Donkeys)  as their chosen charity for this year.  Merlin, Monty, one full time member of staff, myself and five other volunteers, were there to raise some money for the centre.  The donkeys did their bit by meeting the shoppers, and when shopping trolleys were pushed past them, they became very interested as carrots and apples etc past their ever twitching noses. 
Christmas Donkeys At Sainsburys

Myself and the other volunteers spent  the day inside the store bag packing for the lucky customers, hoping that they would be kind enough to drop a few pennies in the buckets.  It was an extremely tiring day, and my arms had a real workout, which definitely helped with the bingo wings.  I was quite glad to get home, sit down and have a nice cup of coffee – bliss, after standing all day.

The donkeys were positioned right in front of the glass cafe windows, so customers who popped into have a cup of coffee had  Merlin & Monty as a nice festive outlook.  When the volunteers stopped for a short lunch break, we sat out on the wooden bench right by the donkey’s pen, and the smell of sandwiches was too much of a temptation for them both, as two strained necks, wet noses and twitching lips got as close as they possibly could without actually taking a mouthfull!!

We each had quite a bit of money in our respective buckets, at the end of the day and the donkeys did well with the collection boxes around their pens.  Quite a few people enquired about our adoption donkeys, Eeyore, Pooh, Wayne and Snowy and many leaflets were also given out, with the hope of raising some more money.

Christmas Donkeys At Sainsburys