“Without our supporters we wouldn’t exist.”
Currently housing 73 animals, Cheltenham Animal Shelter has remained running since first opening its doors in 1926.
The shelter now rescues and rehomes around 650 unwanted animals every year.
Alison Jarvis, Head of Fundraising, explained how the shelter relies purely on donations, fundraisers, and grants. “We don’t get any government funding at all, so everything we do we have to work for ourselves.”
Over the past 12 months, Cheltenham Animal Shelter still had to operate alongside many restrictions. For an organisation so reliant on fundraising this came with many challenges including moving a lot of events online.
“It was a steep learning curve and it was a lot of taking our ideas and seeing if we could get them online. It did open up opportunities though, for example we had never done an online raffle which was very successful. Now, we’ve taken what we’ve learned online and powered up.”
On Wednesday the 1st of December, the shelter will be holding a Christmas Fayre, its first major in-person event since the start of the pandemic.
The Christmas fayre will host a whole range of activities, from Christmas markets, a Santa’s grotto, live entertainment and even a festive BBQ.
Erica Lake, Community Engagement Officer, said that a lot of these events that the shelter runs are for the community as well as for the animals.
“The community help us out, so we like to put on a show for them and invite them through our doors.”
The shelter also runs an annual Shoebox appeal around Christmas where people can fill a shoebox with toys and treats for the animals.
Erica highlighted the massive support they have received in previous years from this appeal, “last year we received just under 200 and it just makes such a massive difference to us. We rely heavily on our supporters, and it really sets us up for the year.”
As for Christmas at the shelter, Nicky Spanswick, Operations Manager, said that the team love the animals like their own and pick out special gifts for them.
“On Christmas day, we actually have a lot of staff willing to work because they just love being here with the animals.”
Nicky also said that coming up to Christmas, the mindset has thankfully changed a lot surrounding giving animals as gifts. “There’s been a lot of publicity like don’t adopt for Christmas and I believe most reputable rescues and shelters tend to stop their rehoming over Christmas. We will only rehome around Christmas if we are fully confident.”
And in the next few weeks, the shelter is hoping to finally bid farewell to two of their longest dog residents. Thor and Bertie are two dogs who have been in the shelter for around two years. Nicky says, “It will be very emotional when they leave, but that’s what they are here for, because there’s nothing quite like a home.”
After a tough year, Alison now hopes that people can look to the future and “have some fun and celebrate what everyone’s achieved.”
The Christmas Fayre is on Wednesday the 1st of December 16:30pm -18:30pm. Gardners Lane, GL51 9JW
Ways you can help:
- Donate directly to the shelter https://gawa.org.uk/make-a-donation/
- Shoebox Appeal https://gawa.org.uk/christmas/shoe-box-appeal/
- Amazon Wishlist https://gawa.org.uk/amazon-wishlist/
- Buy through Smile Amazon – same platform as Amazon, but every time you purchase something a donation will be given to the charity at no added cost to you https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/chpf/homepage?orig=%2F
- Visit their site for more https://gawa.org.uk/
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