Dear Homeward Bound Volunteers & Supporters: An open letter from Homeward Bound:

The Board of Homeward Bound Pet Rescue Inc. of Gilmer County has officially decided to close the doors of our pet rescue as of April 30, 2012, after 12 years in operation. This decision was very tough for us to come to and is based on lack of volunteers at our kennel in Blue Ridge GA, lack of board members to hold the 5 designated positions and lack of Gilmer County resident involvement. As you know our past President, Mary Schneller retired in May 2011 and we have yet to be able to fill the President role of our organization. In my 7 years with Homeward Bound – we are now on our 8th Treasurer. The treasurer position is a very important board position that seems to be a revolving door. The many challenges that this organization has faced has taken it’s toll. While we do have a handful of core volunteers that have continued to keep this organization going many are becoming burned out and exhausted from carrying the majority of the work load that this fairly large reputable rescue organization has, with no relief in site.

We have rescued and found homes for close to 6,000 animals and we have issued out about 3,500 Spay Ellijay low cost spay neuter certificates. We must make sure that the current animals in our system will be taken care of. Our plan is to not intake anymore animals effective immediately and adopt out all of the cats and dogs that we have – which is 19 Cats and 37 Dogs for a total of 56 animals by April 30, 2012. That is 14 Saturday Adoption events at PetSmart in Kennesaw, GA, so if we do 4 adoptions every Saturday we will be on target. We have a few Sunday Adoptions that we will be doing too for Adopt-A-Thons, 1/29/12 and 2/12/12 which will help (if we can get drivers). I have put in to attend the Best Friends Adoption Event in White Plains, NY on April, 28 & April, 29 with any remaining animals to try to find them homes there and will look to other local rescue groups that we work with as well as some up there to pass any remaining animals on to, so hopefully we will get some help with any remaining animals that we have. If you are currently fostering a cat or a dog – please try to get them to every adoption. We do not want any fosters to be “stuck” with any animals and want each animal to have every opportunity to find a home. If you are interested in keeping your foster pet please contact me to make arrangements for paperwork. When time gets closer towards the end we may be looking at some out of state transports to other rescues in helping place some of the remaining animals.

The plan and future of Homeward Bound is to keep our 501(c)3 status and continue the Spay Ellijay (low cost spay neuter through Appalachian Animal Hospital) program as long as funds remain in the account and as long as we have willing and able people to handle the funds/banking, phones and mailing of the certificates. If not, then that program will close also. If you are interested in helping to continue the Spay Ellijay program please let me know. We currently have 2 local ladies in Ellijay retrieving the calls from the Spay Ellijay phone line and returning calls and the Treasurer issuing out the certificates.

This is a sad time for all of us involved that have rallied for the animals in Gilmer county but the same few people can not continue on with no support from our county and/or relief in sight. We need to do what we need to do to ensure that the animals that we have are well cared for and forever homes are found for them. I hope all of you understand that this is a very hard decision to come to and hopefully all of us will still continue in some capacity to help animals. To all of the kids and teens that are involved – I know how committed each of you are to animals and I will work with each of you to find ways to continue to help animals in need and will find other local groups for you to help and I will continue to be involved with your school programs as well.

We must all pull together at this time to find homes for the remaining animals that we do have. I will still continue to do cross postings for Gilmer County Animal Control, the high-kill county shelter, and if transport help is needed you will still see emails from me requesting help to get an animal saved. It will take months to finalize all of this but I just wanted you to all hear this first from me and not through the grapevine.

All incoming donations will continue to go towards the care of our animals and once all of our animals are placed and bills/accounts are paid/closed all available funds will be transferred into one bank account which will provide low cost spay neuter certificates to Gilmer County residents. This will help to continue attacking the pet overpopulation problem at the root by spaying and neutering as many animals as we can in this county of 28,292 people of which 20.5% of the county lives below the poverty level and only 71.3% of county residents age 25+ have a high school diploma (According to the 2010 US Census). These are all factors that show the need for more Spay Neuter Education and low cost Spay Neuter Programs

If there are any individuals out there that would like to take over the board positions of: President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary and Board Member At Large to continue this organization as of 5/1/12 please let me know.

I thank all of you for all that you have done and will continue to do for the animals…. 🙂

Respectfully,

Holly and the Board

Your Board Will Remain As: Holly Bawlick, MJ Helms, Georgia Morrow, John Holcomb and Debbie DeLong through 4/30/12.

Board Email Contact Info:
[email protected] – Holly, Secretary (Dallas, GA)
[email protected] – MJ Helms (Ellijay, GA)
[email protected] – Georgia Morrow (Ellijay, GA)
[email protected] – John Holcomb, Treasurer (Ellijay, GA)
[email protected] – Debbie DeLong (Acworth, GA)