Change A Life, Give Your Time!
The following is from All About Equine Rescue:
We have a variety of somewhat urgent volunteer opportunities, and we really need your help! As the transition to Pilot Hill is finally winding down (but not complete), we need to rebuild our volunteer teams!! Anyone interested in supporting this noble cause to help horses-in-need, we need YOU! Keep reading to see some of our most important needs: HORSE CARE, OUTREACH, FUNDRAISING, AAE’s USED TACK STORE, and GRANTS.
Whether you have volunteered with us or not, we want you! We have an amazing volunteer community, and learning can be easy!
Please read over these volunteer areas and see what interests you.
HORSE CARE
We are seeing a big spike in help requests from several nearby animal care agencies. We NEED to be able to support our law enforcement agencies that are one of the most important voices for our horses. We need more help at the barn to more effective and available to support.
Volunteers care for the horses and other animals daily, rain or shine, at our facility in Pilot Hill, CA. There are two shifts: morning (8:30am to 12:30pm-ish) and afternoon (3pm to 6pm-ish). There are MANY ways to help with horse and animal care, such as feeding, medicating, treating, grooming, mucking, loving the horses, etc.
If you are intimidated by horses, but LOVE them, you can help at the barn without having to work directly with a horse. There’s something for everyone. Other tasks include, fence repairs, fix-it needs, prepping feed, organizing, cleaning, equipment repair, grounds-keeping, etc. With 61-acres, the upkeep is huge!
For volunteers who want to help with care of the horses, there is a mandatory Basic Safety/New Volunteer Orientation where we introduce you to the basics of horse safety and the methods we use for handling horses at AAE. Horse experience is not necessary. We’ll teach you everything you need to know!
If you prefer not to volunteer directly with the horses, we recommend that you still participate in the Basic Safety/New Volunteer Orientation so you can familiarize yourself with barn procedures.
We have a variety of horses, and the safety of volunteers and horses is our number one priority!
Interested in more info? Email our Volunteer Team.
Already know you want to volunteer? Submit a Volunteer Interest Form here.
If you have completed AAE’s Orientation and Basic Safety class, please select any shifts that work for your schedule here.
OUTREACH
AAE attends several well known community events, such as Western States Horse Expo, El Dorado County Fair, and Draft Horse Classic, as well as many other smaller events throughout the year to promote All About Equine. We share information with the general public about our organization, the work we do (rescue, rehab, rehoming, and more), volunteering, the AAE Used Tack Store, our events, and the many ways individuals, businesses, and organizations can support horses-in-need (sponsoring, donating, matching funds, etc.).
Next month, our Outreach Team will participate in the Gold Country Horse Day on April 6 at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds. This is a super fun event with lots of learning opportunities for everyone interested in horses. We need a few people to help with our “booth”. Experience with AAE is a plus, but not necessary. We have some talking point information for you if you don’t have a lot of experience with AAE. You will get a free ticket to the event, and parking is free.
If you enjoy talking with people, talking about horses, and talking about AAE, we need and want you on the Outreach Team!
Sign up for Gold Country Horse Day outreach shifts here. If you can’t help with this event, but you’re interested in future events, stay in the know by sending an email to our Outreach Team with a short note about your interest and any questions you might have.
FUNDRAISING/EVENTS
Fundraising support is a vital need for AAE! We need to secure funds to keep AAE operating and our programs afloat. If you have experience with a certain type of event or fundraising program, or you want to learn, we can use all the help we can get! If you’d like to organize a small event or activity, we need you!
Our most important current fundraising activity is this year’s Boots & Bling. The event will be held on September 28 and planning is underway. This is our biggest fundraiser of the year and a huge endeavor! Planning a fun and successful event is an enormous undertaking, and it takes an army of our horse warriors to make it happen. We need volunteers to help over the coming months, and on the event day itself. The following areas need volunteers in various capacities: auctions, sponsors, dinner, decor, facilities, graphics, marketing, volunteer coordinators, ticket sales, social media, set-up, break-down, other communications, and more. If you have experience and would like to lead a team, there are plenty of opportunities there, too.
If you’d like to help with Boots & Bling or other fundraising/events, please send an email with a short note about your interest to our Boots & Bling team.
USED TACK STORE
AAE operates a used tack store to sell tack and other horse-related items to raise funds for our rescue operations.
Volunteers are needed to support the store. Opportunities include daily store shifts, transporting donations, cleaning tack, researching items for pricing, merchandising, soliciting donations, photographing, posting inventory for sale on social media, and everything else involved in operating a used tack store.
The store is a VITAL part of our funding, and we are desperately short of volunteers to keep it operating. Can you help? The ideal commitment is one shift (4-hour) per week, but even one shift is helpful. Come check out the store and see if you thing you’d like it.
The AAE Used Tack Store is located at 4050 Durock Rd #6 in Shingle Springs, CA and it is open daily from 12-4pm.
To volunteer for a daily store shift, please sign up here.
To volunteer to clean tack, to help with social media for the store, or another store opportunity, please send an email to our Store Team.
GRANTS
Grant funding is also an important part of our funding. We currently need experienced grant writers, and we’d really benefit from a seasoned grant writer who is willing to help train a group of willing grant writers who want to learn.
If you have researched grants or have previous grant writing experience, we need YOU. Please join our grants team, even if you can tackle only one grant. If you’d like to learn, we want you, too. We’re are working towards a grants training opportunity, but aren’t quite there yet.
If interested, please email our Grant Team.