Challenges
This little cutie and her two siblings came as fosters from RBARI when they were so young their mom should still have been stimulating them to eliminate wastes. Guess who got to play "mom" until the Three learned to void their own tiny systems???
But that wasn't the biggest waste management story at RBARI this year. Two others are more impressive--and expensive.
Which is why this year I will donate an additional $1 myself for every $5 donated through my page.
The Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge not only receives no municipal, state, or federal funding: it’s in a town with no municipal sewer system. Ever since the shelter was built twelve years ago some of the money we struggle to raise has gone, year after year, to maintain (and bail out, literally—sometimes the “honey wagon” had to come every month!) a septic system that was badly designed and never worked correctly.
This year, we've gone from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first in one swoop (or scoop), with a new waste management system that's a miniature sewage treatment plant: all it will emit is clean water. Although it's environmentally friendly and will end the outflow of cash for maintenance, the sticker price is high: $45,000.
On August 16th, a disaster struck RBARI. A water main behind the shelter blew a valve. It flooded the shelter with 8 inches of water, combined with sewage from the holding tank for our system. Our bright, clean building is now surrounded by equipment and supplies destroyed by the flood. Throughout the first floor, two feet of drywall has been cut away. Floor tile must be removed and replaced. The only bright spot is that the disaster happened during the day, when staff and volunteers were there to save the animals.
Please: help me to continue to help them.
If you don't want to entrust your credit card information to the web, please send your check to RBARI at: 2 Shelter Lane, Oakland NJ 07436. Only if you tell me the amount of your donation will I be able to do my matching (and add your donation to this page), so don't be shy!
Thank you very much for your support.