Author Archive for: KWilson
Thank You To All Who Have Served!
The Tortorella Foundation would like to thank all the service men and women today, Veterans Day, and every day.
9-Year Old Raises $1300 for rural Animal Shelter
Jordan (9) raise $1304 for Harnett County Animal Shelter for a school project — the assignment came from her 3rd grade social studies teacher, who asked her students to do a community service project of their choosing by Oct. 3.
In a small suburb of Raleigh, NC, 9-year-old Jordan committed to raise money to help Harnett County Animal Shelter, a kill shelter that’s staff has been working diligently to change the conditions and outlook for the animals that come through its doors. Jordan dedicated hours and hours to baking and selling her wares through a bake sale and raised more than $1300.
Jordan and her family rescued Daisy, pictured, in February from Harnett County Animal Shelter.
The Harnett County Animal Shelter manager, Eileen Beeson and her dedicated staff are reaching out to the community in many ways to make changes at Harnett County, and Jordan’s donation is a huge help, Beeson said. Like many rural areas in North Carolina, budget is very limiting. And these shelters are often heavily reliant on donations — food, medical supplies, cat litter and more. So when Jordan was 7 years old and visited the shelter to help a local animal rescue move some cats out of the facility (with her family), she was moved by the poor conditions and small spaces dedicated to the animals. Beeson has since been made the shelter manager and is working hard to better those conditions.
And because Jordan loves to bake, she decided to have a bake sale, with all proceeds going to Harnett County Animal Shelter. Her initial goal was to raise $300 to help the shelter buy a new bunny hutch or a dog waste station. An animal-loving anonymous donor agreed to match any funds Jordan raised. Jordan asked family and friends to donate boxed cake mixes and brownies to help defer some of the costs. Her plan was do have a bake sale during a neighborhood yard sale that brings in a lot of outside traffic, but Hurricane Florence hit NC and it was postponed. During the hurricane, Jordan and her family (including her 7-year-old sister) baked seven boxes of brownies and sold them to neighbors who were stuck inside due to the storm. She raised $110 just baking the brownies during Florence.
Jordan made this strawberry filled and decorated cake as part of her sale.
The following week Jordan spent days baking cakes, cookies, brownies and cupcakes to sell. And Saturday morning she got up early and baked cinnamon rolls and muffins to sell. That afternoon, she sold the rest of her baked goods. All told, she raised $465. This wasn’t good enough for Jordan. She pushed harder, committing to bake more to raise an even $500. When she reached out to people, via her mother’s facebook account, about $180 more came in via check, cash and paypal payments — giving her a total of $652. With the promised match, Jordan raised $1304.
Jordan raised enough to buy Harnett County the bunny hutch, a doggie waste station and help the shelter raise the remaining capital to commission a carpenter to build cat kennels to replace the 22 year old housing they currently have. There was money left over, and Jordan intends to buy the shelter a microchip scanner, a dog bed and some water buckets with it.
Harnett County Animal Shelter has an amazon wishlist for those interested in donating directly to the shelter to help better the lives of the animals in their care.
Foundation Helps with Those Affected By Wildfires
Brandie (in red) is the owner of Baker’s Acres. Pictured here is Brandie and other folks who were forced to evacuate areas affected by wildfires. Brandie shut down her kennel business during the evacuations to house more than 75 animals through the four week evacuation!
Earlier this year, The Tortorella Family Foundation was delighted to meet Valerie Ingram and Alistair Schroff founders of Lakes Animal Friendship Society (LAFS) in northern British Columbia, Canada. These two passionate animal lovers created amazing books and materials for their Humane Education Program, which they generously shared with us to
Ava (pictured) is one of many evacuated animals from the wildfires on the Pacific coast.
enrich our own.
Unfortunately, the Society and many neighboring animal welfare organizations and pet owners in the area were affected by devastating wildfires. In response to Valerie and Alistair’s kindness toward the Foundation, a grant was sent to Valerie to distribute to those who needed assistance.
To learn more about LAFS’ vibrant materials for children and their humane efforts to help animals, please visit their website: www.lakesanimalfriendship.ca
SPCA Continues Humane Ed Programs
The Tortorella Family Foundation was pleased to provide a grant to its Bear’s Angel
s partner, the SPCA of Westchester to help support their Humane Education Programs. The SPCA visits more than 50 schools in the county, presenting workshops to students and hosts many children’s groups on its Briarcliff Manor, NY animal care campus.
The Foundation shares the SPCA’s belief that educating children to be informed advocates for animals helps to create a kinder, more compassionate world. Information about the SPCA’s programs and services can be found on its website: www.spca914.org
NY Shelters Aid with Hurricane Florence Animals
Asa was taken in by Pets Alive – Middleton (NY) as Hurricane Florence hit the Carolinas.
Anna at Suruluna plays with one of the Hurricane Florence “refugee” dogs.
Two Bear’s Angels partners from New York State, Suruluna and Pets Alive in Middleton, took in dogs from southern shelters affected by Hurricane Florence. As the storm approached the coasts of North and South Carolina in September, many homeless animals were moved out of regional shelters due to safety concerns as well as to make room for the stray and lost dogs and cats that would need rescue during and following Florence.
The Tortorella Family Foundation was pleased to provide grants to Suruluna and Pets Alive for their kind assistance to the transported animals they welcomed to their facilities. Please visit www.suruluna.org and www.petsalive.org for a list of supplies they could use to help these animals.
Foundation Helped Fund New Washers/Dryers
The Tortorella Family Foundation was honored to be able to help The Goathouse Refuge buy new washers and dryers to keep up with their kitty laundry. Their kitties produce HUGE amounts of dirty laundry and our old ones were in disrepair.
The Goathouse Refuge in Pittsboro, NC is a sanctuary for cats, mostly whom come from high kill shelters and strays. They take in the hardest of the hard and the sickest of the sick.
For more information about the Goathouse Refuge, visit here.
Emergency Preparedness for Pet Owners During Hurricane Season
See below for information for pet owners as they prepare for Hurricane Florence and other storms this hurricane season.
https://cvm.ncsu.edu/hurricane-florence-preparedness-for-animal-owners/
HAPPY TAILS! Sawyer Found at Great Home!
Sawyer is already adopted! Sawyer was one of 25 cats rescued from an emergency “hoarding” situation in North Carolina, and NC Dog Rescue quickly came to the rescue and helped find him a home. Dee Dee Clark at NC Dog Rescue found Sawyer a home with a friend of a friend of Clark’s.
For more information about the other animals that were rescued or to adopt one of these sweet animals, click here.
HAPPY TAILS! Kit & Miriam Were The Vets’ Choice
Kit and Miriam were both rescued from the divorce situation (25 cats, 10 dogs and 2 turtles need to be re-homed urgently) by NC Dog Rescue’s Dee Dee Clark.
Clark quickly found Miriam a home with her vet, where she is the new office cat! Kit is feral and prefers the outdoors, and she will live on 50 acres and on-site vet care as it is a veterinarian’s home!
For more information about this emergency rescue, click here.
OUR MISSION
The John and Christine Tortorella Family Foundation for Giving Back, was created to enable our family to reach out to more children in disadvantaged situations, to help others who work to improve the lives of these children and their families, and to help those who protect children, animals and our environment from harm.
We believe that reading and writing skills are the cornerstones to a good education, and that exposure to music and art encourages the creative process in children. Our own literacy program,
Enlighten Your World … READ! is our personal commitment to reach out and encourage the interest of children in reading, writing, music and art.
You are invited to browse our website to see some of the activities that we are involved in and to consider sponsorship of the program. All proifits of book sales go into the foundation literacy program for disadvantaged children.
We pledge to be forthright and involved with each entity we designate a recipient of any dollars we give through the foundation. Our family will often respond to time sensitive critical situations, with our personal support, because the need is immediate. There are often crisis situations, and immediately help may save a life of an animal. This can leave no time to properly put it through the processes of our foundation’s polices of discretion and discernment.
And thank you for giving back to those in need in your community.
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