Dear Friends and Family, the time has come. My friends and I are building a regional animal welfare organization The Underground Tailroad, and we are asking for your support. I am asking for your support. Ever since I felt called to this part of North Carolina, I have been surprised time and time again with how pieces of a puzzle have fit together. The final pieces for The Underground Tailroad are finding their place.
One of those pieces was finding a group of people of similar mind and the energy to do some really big work - creating better communities through the human-animal bond. Kindness, creativity, collaboration, and cooperation motivate us to help both the animals and the people in our community. We believe that animals help humans in so many ways, and we have a responsibility to be stewards for living things.
Another piece is simply the process of pursuing our tax write-off status...the 501c3. We are an incorporated Nonprofit in North Carolina, but it will take us up to a year to have that piece of paperwork which says, yep, you can write off your donation, folks. In the meantime, we still have a lot of work to do, and because our work is about ending euthanasia, we don't just get to sit around on our fannies and wait for that 501c3. This work needs us to be available every day and almost every hour. We need you to invest in us, to reach out to those who might want to invest in us, like any start-up. In the nonprofit world, the rewards aren't in big stock percentages and monetary payouts; the rewards are in making the world a better place.
What do we do? A lot. We work with animal shelters to improve relationships and save animals - we foster animals ourselves and network them to adopters and rescues. We transport animals from high-euthanasia shelters in the south to safe-for-life facilities in other parts fo the country. Why? Because transport works. Of the 51 dogs and cats sent to a rescue partner in New Jersey two days after Thanksgiving, only 5 are still looking for homes. And we are doing it again the day after Christmas.
We try to help people with animal emergencies and to keep families together - that means helping someone keep their dog or cat, whenever we can. We strive to improve awareness about spay/neuter as a key element in ending the euthanasia of 3-4 MILLION animals a year in the USA. Indeed, improving access to spay/neuter in our rural mountains of Western North Carolina is a top priority. And we know that people so often don't know where to turn to for help here. We want to be the place they know to turn to. What about wildlife? For those of you who know me, I have a wildlife rehabilitation background, as do others on the team. Because we are in isolated geography, finding help for injured wildlife is often a challenge, and that is also something we want to assist with. A wildlife program is in our list of goals for the next 3 years.
Right now we just need to be able to dedicate ourselves to this effort fully and wholeheartedly. We are looking for support which would include partial salary support for two people, myself being one of them. We need to be able to go out in the community and work, make the connections that need to be made, in order to build The Underground Tailroad into what we have dreamed of. It is not some ephemeral dream. It is real. We have created real success in this region, and it is also because we see our community asking for us to take the next steps that we feel the time is right. One in 10 people cannot read in this part of the country. Unemployment is rampant. Animal welfare AND community welfare are far behind where any of us would like them to be. It is up to us to do something about it.
We see organizations like Best Friends Animal Society, Animal Compassion Network, Asheville Humane Society, and The Washington Animal Rescue League, and we know we have the capacity to evoke change just like they have. That is what we are striving for. What about our name? The Underground Tailroad was built with the idea that we are responsible for guiding our communities to freedom and prosperity, and that our communities are made up of living things, in general. Just as humans helped other humans through the Underground Railroad, so do we see our responsibility to be a beacon for hope in our current age, and we hold the significance of the Underground Railroad close to our hearts and with utmost respect as we pursue this through the human-animal bond.
Do you have questions? Would you like to support us, but want to know more? Please email us at undergroundtailroad@gmail.com or message us on our Facebook page The Underground Tailroad. We are working on our website, but the fact of the matter is that Facebook is a powerhouse for helping animal welfare advocates do their work. The Facebook page is also an excellent resource for you to see what we are about, the cases we have handled, our rhetoric and passion.
I thank you for your time. I thank you for following this blog and for following our work. We couldn't be here without you, and so many, MANY animals are alive because of your support. Just as so many people are thankful for the help we've been able to provide. We want to do more. To do more we need you.
Happy Holidays.
Love from the Tailroad,
Chandra
President & Executive Director
The Underground Tailroad
If you would like to donate, make checks out to The Underground Tailroad and send to:
Chandra Spaulding
The Underground Tailroad
8381 US Hwy 441 S
Sylva, NC 28779 USA
Donations can also be sent via Paypal to undergroundtailroad@gmail.com
Again, thank you for supporting our vision and mission!
I have a dog sleeping beside my chair that was first posted on the Underground Tailroad. He's a western NC dog spending his first Christmas in a warm, safe foster home. You do good things!
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