September 2023 Newsletter

15/09/2023

We hope you have had a lovely summer. It has been an extremely busy time for Our Special Friends helping people and their pets who are going through very difficult times, and our volunteers visiting lonely and isolated people in their own homes.

We welcomed our new Animal Companionship Coordinator, Trina, in May of this year (read more about her below). We’ve been out and about at various events, raising awareness of our work and, in June, we celebrated our fantastic volunteers with our annual Volunteer Celebration Event.

Thank you to everyone who continues to support the work of Our Special Friends – we could not do it without you.

Trina, who joined us in May, is our new Animal Companionship Coordinator. She has previously worked as a primary school teacher in Bury St Edmunds, Colchester, Southend-on-Sea and even Qatar. She is excited to bring her skills developed over the years in education to this role and looks forward to being out in the community, meeting everyone and promoting the amazing work of Our Special Friends. She lives with her partner Grant and their border collie Cooper.

Trina sitting on the ground with her black and white collie called Cooper — Trina and her dog Cooper

Our Special Friends celebrated our 9th Birthday! And what better way to celebrate a birthday than with cake! We celebrated nine years of Our Special Friends with a lovely dog walk around Nowton Park. We finished off with some delicious cake and coffee. Our heartfelt thanks go out to everyone who supports us on our journey and we look forward to celebrating our 10th birthday!

9th birthday cake OSF — Our Special Friends 9th Birthday cake

The Pets at Home Sudbury Easter Appeal was a great success, raising a total of £384.45. We really appreciated the help of our volunteers with this appeal. Darcie and Willow were a little upset that they weren’t the winners of the lovely dog hamper!

We have also attended some enjoyable events around Suffolk including the South Suffolk Show (May), the Haverhill Show (July) and British Racing School Fun Day (July). As a result of these events, we have recruited some new volunteers and raised funds to support our vital work. A big thank you to our new and existing volunteers who play a vital part in allowing us to attend these events and raise awareness of our work.

osf events 2023 — Collage of photos from our summer events in 2023

In June, we celebrated our amazing volunteers with our annual Volunteer Celebration Event. A fantastic evening was had by all, with dog agility, a barbeque and a guest appearance from Mark Pendlington, the High Sheriff of Suffolk! We can’t wait to start organising next year’s event!

volunteer social 2023 — Some of our wonderful volunteers and pooches at the Volunteer Celebration Event

We would like to say a massive thank you to the Newmarket and District Canine Society for their generous donation of £5,000. This donation will allow us to continue providing our vital services and we couldn’t be more grateful.

OSF collecting a cheque — Our Special Friends with the Newmarket and District Canine Society and cheque

Thank you to Tesco Newmarket, who raised an impressive £560 for Our Special Friends through their charity book stand. Pet Remedy, Benebone, Denzel’s and Assisi Pet Care have generously donated products to us for distribution at events we have attended, as well as a discount from Mekuti on their products. We have also had a number of wonderful raffle prize donations from Redrow, CFG Law, Dogwood Groomers, The Perfume Shop and L’Occitane.

You can read our full September 2023 Newsletter here.