Gratitude for the work Animals as Natural Therapy does and the lives they touch in the community and for generations to come.  My work with Animals as Natural Therapy was a joy.  I donated business and donor consulting, marketing, IT, and design services to them for over 5 years and met one of my best friends in the process.  Areas specific to donor work included:

• Existing donor database management, demographics and segmentation
• Creation of target donor list and donor acquisition strategy
• Migration from excel to donor/auction/event management software
• Email, web, social strategy plans

The website I built is still up including some of the original photography I took and chose.   Animals as Natural Therapy

This organization creates so many pathways for people experiencing or healing from drug addiction, homelessness, foster, abuse, post service depression, PTSD, physical and learning challenges, and a host of other often commingled obstacles.  The service animals are quite the menagerie from little fluffy rabbits to rescued horses.  It was my honor to help create and spread the love.  I had the opportunity amongst the consulting to also create a series of gala and event posters for events and took the photography.    In addition to business services I also provided free art classes.  What follows is a blog post from one of them.

Building a Dream:  When Armina, an Animals as Natural Therapy (ANT) intern from Denmark asked me to work with some of the kids from ANT to make art I was excited.  Working with youth is a joy and a challenge all  in one.  Working with at-risk youth is another experience all together.  I am not fond of the title “at-risk” because we all are at risk.  These souls I encountered are indeed struggling to find their place. Knowing that most kids with stable home environments have little art background knowledge I was wondering what these kids would bring.  We settled on creating a larger piece – a sculpture of a horse the animals that is the work-horse of the therapy animals at ANT.  They are big, yet soft, seemingly wild but trustworthy, non-judgmental but know when you are not honest and call the participants on their “stuff”.

We bought the materials and picked a night.  There were 2 groups on that cold winter night.  An older group of 2 and a younger group of 3.  I was told teamwork could be a challenge.  Safety goggles and gloves donned we started to make the legs and body.  We got to talking as we felt the temps dip in the open barn.  These kids were smart and kind.  They seemed excited to be making something together.  They reached and bent and pulled and cut and the horse began to take shape. Smaller ones worked on the project too but also did collage for decoration.

We fashioned the heart and placed it inside the body cavity affixing it to the chest.  Teeth chattered and fingers froze but they kept working.  When we had done what could be done that night as the legs had been very weak it was sad to part.  For a while we were a team working on a dream and watching it come alive. I made sure to meet what family representatives there were and to let them know my heartfelt gratitude for their efforts that night.

Later I came back to put a new pvc skeleton in.  The horse sits upstairs in the barn waiting for warmer temps and festivals.  I have cut strips to affix for the mane and tail.  These strips will hold written wishes and prayers from participants and the public and be tied in one at a time to make a collection of positive affirmations and hopes.

Thanks to Armina for her vision.  Thanks to ANT for the opportunity.  Thanks to the participants for their open hearts that night.