Willing Servants has the following community projects which we hope will be both great fun and gratifying to participate in. If you are willing to lend a helping hand for one or more of these events/projects, please email the contact listed. We look forward to having a lot of fun and friendship while we raise funds to provide services to the horse community.

It's time to gear up for the 2011 fundraising season.

I bet we're preachin' to the choir when we tell responsible horses owners that it takes a good bit of money to do what we do for other people and their horses.

It still takes a community effort to make it happen, which is exactly how we started...from a community effort. A community effort which was motivated by the suffering of Able and his friends. Looking back it's heartwarming to realize that we were all at our best in the face of his crisis. As a community we can be very proud of the individual parts we played in he and his mates recovery.

But the question begging to be asked is "Can we come together as a community again?" Ecnomic times are tougher, and we won't have the emotional stimulation of horrific pictures on the front of our paper. This time, our motivation will have to be from seeing the benifits in being proactive and keeping people and horses out of criminal neglect. My sincere hope is that the answer is a resounding "YES!"

Jodi Barger is now enjoying her new saddle, custom made for her by Spanish Peaks Saddlery and won from our raffle! We were delighted to have Jodi win the saddle as she was also one of our adopters who opened her home and her heart to a rescue horse. Jodi has had the opportunity to participate in the building process of the whole saddle as it was made to fit her, her horse and specifications. What a luxury! Gretchen has given us the incredibly generous gift of another custom built saddle to raffle...so be sure to get your tickets. $1, 6-$5, and 15- $10.  We'll be selling them at misc events, or get in touch.  How many would you like?  It's a $5K saddle and having one custom made is a luxury most of us will never know.  Congratulations Jodi!  Ride it with pride! 

Upcoming wine sale in July sponsored by Trapper Peak Winery (details soon)

Community Donation Auction Results.

We’re very blessed to live in such a generous community, made up of such a diverse group of compassionate people. We have a large base of competent horsemen, ranchers and farmers in our valley that not only know the differences between the animal rights agenda and animal welfare, which is where Willing Servants align, but also recognize the benefits of being proactive in our efforts to keep people out of criminal neglect.

 Even during these tough economic times, people have once again dug deep to find ways to support and contribute. We had some wonderful items and services donated. It’s very heartwarming.

 We grossed a little over $6500. from our Community Donation Benefit Auction, with consignment commissions still being determined and to be paid out of that total.

For the sake of comparison, I looked up the numbers from our first auction in Oct 2008 that actually gave birth to our organization. I’m sure most of you will recall, we were all incited by the level of criminal neglect we witnessed in the case of Able and friends, and as such, we were motivated to DO SOMETHING! And boy did we! I was so proud to be part of a community that would rally to the needs of horses like we did. We grossed 11K from that first auction. Then, we gave buyers the opportunity to choose which organization they wanted to support…the BRHA received $2000., the Pet Protection Program received $1600, or our brand new organization, born that morning, Willing Servants received $6300. Within a few days, additional silent auction proceeds came in, plus some additional donations, bringing WS grand total to $7300. The numbers clearly demonstrated that the community felt as I did… we needed a horse centric welfare organization.

So in looking at Willing Servants numbers for this year, if you consider the fact that we did not have a “crisis” to motivate us, (which is a very good thing as our objective is to keep people and horses out of criminal neglect,) we did pretty darn good! And if you add the generous $2500. donation we received as a result of our Auction promotion;and we’ll never forget Latigo Jim willing us his last $1.50;it brings our grand total to $9001.50. for our efforts surrounding this fund raiser, or an increase of $1701.50 over our first attempt. Growth is good! Once again…I’m proud to know ya Bitterroot Valley! Good job team! We’ll use the money to restock our community hay bank and continue our work. Since our administrative costs are so low, this will take us ‘down the trail a’ways.’  And, as promised, we are 100% transparent and invite your scrutiny.

Thank you ALL…donors and buyers.   We could not do what we do without the support of our community. Special thanks goes to Joyce Wesche who was the driving force behind this event. And last but certainly not least, we owe Rick Peverley of RLP Auctions and his whole crew...Lavelle, Ron, George, Lisa, Tabitha and Jeff, and the legendary Cliff Trexler a huge and sincere THANK YOU for donating your time, skills and beautiful facility! They did a fantastic job for us and, as always, made it fun to spend our money.

Horse Hugs!

Theresa Manzella

on behalf of Willing Servants