Remembering Rusty (1986-2020)
The following is from All About Equine Animal Rescue:
Remembering Rusty
Last week, we lost one of our most beloved AAE heroes.
Rusty has been such a beloved symbol of AAE for so long.
He taught so many people about the kindness of horses, the greatness of horses,
the mystery of horses, and the strength of horses.
He held gently so many of our hearts, and some more than others.
Rusty came to us way back in 2010 from his own hero,
his amazing mom that was in the military reserves and facing deployment.
She was also dealing with some financial challenges and
wanted only the best for her special guy.
She worried about his fate when she’d be gone for an extended time.
AAE welcomed this lovely ol’ guy with open arms.
Rusty was 24.
Rusty had already experienced a full life.
As best I recall 10 years later, he had started on the Arabian Horse racing circuit,
then dabbled in various disciplines in the arena before moving on to “happy trails”.
When he first came to us, he participated in a small riding lesson program with one of our founding fosters.
He transitioned to AAE where he became a fixture in our New Volunteer Orientation program and
various Youth programs while waiting for his forever home.
After what we thought was going to be the perfect home passed on him,
we realized how much he meant to AAE, and AAE was meant to be his forever.
Fortunately, Rusty lived a good life at AAE. He had few problems, he was an easy-keeper, and
his youthful and swanky spirit captured the hearts of many.
Rusty put the exclamation mark at after “senior horses are so special”!
Rusty, Sparky, Finn, and LoneStar were a dream team. Ruby was his special lady.
Rusty was 34. He made the decision. He left us during the night, on his terms.
No goodbyes to us. No goodbyes from us.
We’re all so broken-hearted. Goodbye special guy.
You touched our world in so many unspoken ways, and
we’re all so grateful you’ve left us with so many memories.
We’ll remember you forever, Rust.
Love you, ol’ man!
Oh My, A New Tractor, Thank You!
Balancing the sad news, we have some wonderful news.
AAE received a really special gift; one that will make so much of our “hard” work so much more achievable and with much less of the “heavy” burden, especially looking forward to working with our new property.
THANK YOU, Dick and Sue L.!
It’s already been put to good use, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
This is such an immeasurable representation of your love of AAE and your long support and dedication to
the health and happiness of our horses (and all of our humans).
Thank YOU, Thank YOU, Thank YOU!!!
Remember to select All About Equine Animal Rescue, Inc. as your charity of choice,
AmazonSmile donates to AAE with every purchase, at no cost to you!
This is a FREE and EASY way YOU can help raise funds for AAE.
VOLUNTEER NEEDS
(most after COVID-19 concerns pass)
As many of you know, we have a continuing need to expand store hours.
TACK STORE SUPPORT
We need more help staff the store on Wednesday afternoons, 2p-6p, can you help?
We would also like to expand our daily hours.
Fri to Mon 10-12 and 2-6. With enough help, we can split the shifts, 10a to 2p and 2p to 6p.
Likewise, Tues-Thurs, we’d like to add 10a to 2p.
If you’re interested in helping with tack store activities (e.g. cleaning donated tack, researching/pricing, organizing/merchandising, blanket/tack repairs, picking up tack donations, helping customers, sharing AAE info, admin support, and more), we need you.
Current store hours are Fri-Mon 12-4p, and recently added Tues/Thurs hours 2-6p.
We can always use help during any of the current hours, too.
Please email us if you are interested/available Tues, Wed, or Thurs afternoons, 2-6p.
ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT
If you are available to help with administrative activities, we are creating admin hours in the office at the store. We have a variety of administrative tasks we need help getting done.
Please email us if you are interested/available Tues, Wed, or Thurs afternoons, 2p-6p.
BOOTS & BLING 2020
We postponed off our Boots & Bling event, but will need help planning as soon as we set a new date. The event includes a catered BBQ Dinner, DJ Music and Dancing, Live/Silent/Dessert auctions, and line dancing with instruction. We need help in most areas for planning for this event to make sure its a huge success for AAE and our horses.
Please email us if you are interested in helping with Boots & Bling.
Once we resume, we will meet once a month until the event.
SPECIAL PROJECTS AROUND THE BARN
Maybe you’d like to help around the barn, but don’t want to work directly with the horses,
or you don’t like to muck?
We could use some daily to weekly to monthly help cleaning and organizing, whether it’s the feed room, the meds room, the office, the tools, groundskeeping, painting shelters, monitoring the fencelines, dump runs, tree trimming, coordinating vehicle maintenance, or a zillion other things.
There’s so much that needs to be done, and we can use extra hands to help keep things looking nice and clean.
Please email us if you are interested/available during regular barn shifts,
Mon-Sat 8a-noon, Sun 9a-1p or afternoons 3p-6p.
Daily Horse Care, especially pm shifts (Daily 8a-12p or 3p-6p)
Used Tack Store Support, all areas (Fri – Mon, 12-4p, possibly T, W, Th 2-6p)
Barn/Facility Maintenance
Foster Homes, Long-Term Foster/Sanctuary Homes
Capital Campaign Support
Board Members
Fundraising/Events
Grants – Writing and Research
Volunteer, Project, and Activity Coordinators
Outreach Activities
Youth Programs
Therapy Programs
Veteran Programs
Special Projects
Admin Support
Marketing
Graphics
Social Media
Bloggers
Photographers
Media and/or Photo Librarian
More, more, more
Interested in volunteering or volunteering in other areas?
Employers Match Donations, Does Yours?
Hey volunteers!
Did you know YOU could earn grant money for AAE from your employer just by volunteering?
Many Employers offer money when their employees volunteer. Here are a few examples:
-
Intel
provides a $10 grant to a nonprofit per every volunteer hour by an employee, and matches funds dollar for dollar up to $5,000 per employee or retiree.
-
Microsoft provides a $17 grant to a nonprofit per every hour volunteered by an employee.
-
Apple provides a $25 grant to a nonprofit per every volunteer hour by an employee, and matches funds dollar for dollar up to $10,000 per employee.
-
Verizon provides a $750 grant to a nonprofit when an employee volunteers for 50+ hours.
- State Farm provides a $500 grant nonprofit when an employee volunteers for+ 40 hours.
- Others top 20 matching gift and/or volunteer grant companies include
-
- Starbucks
- CarMax
- Home Depot
- JP Morgan
- Chevron
- Soros Fund Management
- BP (British Petroleum)
- Gap Corporation
- State Street Corporation
- ExxonMobil
- Johnson & Johnson
- Boeing
- Disney
- Merck
- Aetna
- Dell
- Outerwall (CoinStar and RedBox)
- ConocoPhillips
- RealNetworks
- Time Warner and subsidiaries
- AllState
- and more
Check with your employer. You could help purchase our next load of hay!