My Volunteering at The Donkey Sanctuary Ivybridge DAT Branch

A Sh..t Job But Someone Had To Do It

The Elisabeth Svendsen Trust for Children and Donkeys (EST) is a UK based charity dedicated to providing riding therapy with donkeys to children with special needs and disabilities for which I am a volunteer.

Included in the work that the centre does is also visiting Care Homes for the elderly, where a donkey is taken around the home and meets to meet the residents which is referred to “Outreach”.    Normally when the lists go up with the dates for a volunteer to go with a member of staff, they are filled up very quickly, as quite a lot of the volunteers do like to do this, and in all the years that I have been a volunteer I have always been too slow to put my name down.  However, a couple of days ago an email was sent asking for a volunteer to go out on one of these visits, as the volunteer who was going to do it couldn’t make it.   As I said above, I had not had the chance to do one of these so I immediately replied and my offer was taken up. [Read more…] about A Sh..t Job But Someone Had To Do It

Love At First Sight – Tim The Donkey

The Elisabeth Svendsen Trust for Children and Donkeys (EST) is a UK based charity dedicated to providing riding therapy with donkeys to children with special needs and disabilities for which I am a volunteer.

I went down to the centre last week (the end of October 2011) to help out for a couple of hours in the morning.  We had four new donkeys who came to the centre a few months ago.  They have to be separated from the other donkeys for short while – a bit like quarantine, to make sure that they had not brought any viruses or unwanted ailments that could have been passed on to the resident donkeys, and also to get used to their new surroundings.   They then have to be integrated quite slowly as donkeys do have pecking orders, and being a new donkey joining an existing herd can be quite unsettling.  Fights can ensue, but soon differences are sorted out, the pecking order re-established and in no time they are all living as one big happy family.  One advantage of the four new donkeys is their size, so some of the resident donkeys probably thought twice about asserting their authority, as these would were big new boys they would be challenging!! [Read more…] about Love At First Sight – Tim The Donkey

My Volunteers Morning At EST 21st October 2011
The Elisabeth Svendsen Trust for Children and Donkeys (EST) is a UK based charity dedicated to providing riding therapy with donkeys to children with special needs and disabilities for which I am a volunteer. I went down to help a couple of days ago, and we had two schools who attended the centre in the morning. [Read more…] about My Volunteers Morning At EST 21st October 2011

Car Treasure Hunt Ivybridge EST

The Centre has a PFA (Parents and Friends Association) Committee which is a group of volunteers who arrange and run fundraising events for The Ivybridge EST .  Over the years they have arranged Barn Dances, Summer, Christmas and Easter Fairs, Quiz Nights, Fashion Shows, Car Boot Sales and most recenly a car treasure hunt, which was held on the 2nd October 2011, in absolutely glorious sunshine.  Our summer had arrived at last, a bit late, but it was lovely.

The treasure hunt entailed following instructions to get us from one place to another, and along the way solving clues and collecting items, where you would earn points.  Mileage was also taken into consideration,  as there was a prize at the end of it. We were given information that it would take us about 2 hours to complete travelling about 20 miles. [Read more…] about Car Treasure Hunt Ivybridge EST