Deep Roots: Animal Rights Blog » fundraising

Thank you!

eChris — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:20:13 +0000

It is always so great to be able share good news. Our good news is that we were able to raise $4,000 in about a week to be able to build a new barn and rescue more chickens (and eventually other small farm animals). The construction of this barn will truly mark the next step in our evolution as an organization working to rescue at-risk animals and end animal exploitation.

We couldn’t have done it without help from dozens of people. It was truly awe-inspiring to see folks from Chicago, NYC, Portland, and as far away as Holland come together to help out a grassroots sanctuary in rural Indiana. We couldn’t have done it without all of the people who donated and helped spread the word. It really was a grassroots effort.

We heard today that the money is being transferred to our account, so we plan to get started really soon. We will keep you up-to-date on work days and progress through this blog, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and our newsletter. (Have you signed up for our free email newsletter?)

We are really excited about this next step. Are you?

As if that wasn’t enough good news, here is some more from the past couple of weeks:

Charges were dropped against the AETA 4! As animal liberationists, we are really excited about this. Now we can go back to chalking sidewalks without being charged with terrorism (we hope).
BP and the Coast Guard reached an agreement to stop burning sea turtles trapped in the oil spill. BP still needs to do much, much more, so don’t think this is letting them off the hook.
Zimbabwe stopped the sale of elephants and other wildlife to North Korea.
Obama administration argued against commercial whaling at IWC. This one truly is a victory of the masses. LOTS of people fought to make this happen. Keep taking action… it works.

I’m sure there is more good news. Feel free to share in the comments.

Donor will match donations over next two days

eChris — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:20:20 +0000

We just got some great news that a donor will match all donations to our Kickstarter campaign made in the next two days. That means that every donation you give will be doubled and we only need to raise about $1,700 to be able to go forward with construction and operation chicken rescue! However, we have less than three days to raise that amount, so please donate as much as you can and share this with everyone you know.

Kel asked some good questions about this campaign that might help shed some light.

Kel: can you help me understand why a chicken coop costs $6000?

Chris: Calling it a chicken coop is a bit deceiving. It is more of a barn that will be large enough to hold dozens of chickens and a few small farm animals. All of which will be rescues from abusive situations. The $6000 figure was the estimated amount to cover material costs, equipment rental, and food/care for the chickens for the first year. It didn’t make sense to us to raise money for an empty barn. We also factored in the credit card processing fees. Let me know if you have any other questions. You are right, we should have better explained where that number came from. I assure you, it was the result of a lot of research and personal experience.

Kel: What happens to the pledged funds if you don’t reach the goal?

Chris: The cards aren’t processed if we don’t raise all the funds. It is all or nothing.

If you want more information about what we are buiding and why, visit the Kickstarter project page (http://kck.st/crFbgq).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Buying land and playing kickball

eChris — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 02:38:16 +0000

I have a skewed view of saturday’s kickball tournament. As an organizer, any event is always a little stressful. As the tournament umpire… even more so. But it was still great fun. Myself and the other organizers have had several people come up to us over the past couple of days to tell us how it was one of the funnest days they’ve experienced in awhile.

Event Sponsors

In case you were wondering, The KickAssers won the tournament after defeating The Qix eight to seven. It was a close game that was won in the bottom of the final inning. The winning team took home some really nice Kickball Championship tshirts, tickets to the haunted train, raffle tickets, and an amazing trophy. I was a little too busy to take any pictures, but I’ll try to track some down.

In addition to kickball (and the obstacle course that decided one tie game), we had a lot of vegan ice cream (donated by Chicago Soy Dairy), veggie hot dogs, and a raffle with several prizes donated by the local companies listed to the right. We also introduced our new tshirt, which will be for sale on this site soon (and several places around Bloomington).

Even though this event was meant to be more of a community event than a fundraiser, we were able to raise enough for the retainer fee for the lawyer. Which brings me to my next point… we are buying land! We’ve been in the process for a couple of months now, but I’ve been waiting to write about it until we got a little closer to signing the contract. The land is absolutely gorgeous, and it already has a large house (which will be used for housing sick, injured, and adoptable animals). Sticking with our commitment to environmental sustainability, one wall of the house is earth berm, it is heated and cooled geothermally using radiant floor coils, and the windows are triple-paned. We will also work on implementing renewable sources of energy such as microhydro. I’ve included a map of the land below so you can check it out.

As you can see, we are buying 21.79 acres, which is part of about an 150-acre parcel. We plan to buy a good portion of the additional acreage (if not all of it), not too far down the road, but one thing at a time, right? Beside, the current owner of the land is nice enough to allow us to lease the land for free for the first four years. As you can image, 22 acres with a fairly new (and big) house and a lake is pretty expensive. A little over $300,000, actually. We are hoping to pay off the land within three years, but we need your help today to help us with the down payment and monthly mortgage (not to mention the cost of building a new intake center and caring for dozens of animals). I’ve set up a fund-raising page through change.org where you can easily donate using your credit or debit card. You can also donate on our site via PayPal or send a check to:

Deep Roots Animal Sanctuary
P.O. Box 171
Bloomington, IN 47404

Every bit helps, but please give as much as you can. And remember, right now we are a completely volunteer-ran organization so 100% of your money will go towards housing, rehabilitating, and otherwise fighting for the animals. I’ll keep you informed on our progress! Thanks in advance for donating and passing on the word.

View Larger Map

We have Haunted Train tickets!

eChris — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:42:36 +0000

The kind folks at Bakers Junction have donated 50 haunted train tickets for us to sell as a fundraiser. If you aren’t familiar with the haunted train, you need to check it out. If you are familiar, then I’ll get on with how you can get your tickets and support the sanctuary.

Those interested in buying tickets can contact Melissa at 312-927-0039 or melissa [at] deeprootssanctuary.org. You can also buy tickets next Saturday, September 29th, at the Bloomington Coffee Roasters’ table at the Farmers’ Market. The ticket price is $5, but if you can’t afford the full amount, just give what you can (if you can afford more, remember that all of the money is going to the sanctuary). The tickets are only good for the 5th and 6th of October, so be sure to get your tickets soon!