Spare a Life
Here I am with my friend Karen Welch, founder and co-director of SPARE (Save Pound Animals thru Rescue & Education). The group works with the Carson (California) Animal Shelter and a local shelter to help find new homes for unwanted animals — and I donate all my royalties from book sales to this special group. Read all about how SPARE began and the wonderful work they do in my Editor’s feature article on them in Designing Wealth Magazine. The photos of the street dogs’ Cinderella transformations will amaze and touch you — all possible thanks to SPARE’s establishment of an on-site grooming room to give these neglected, abandoned, and abused animals the gentle care they need before they are put up for adoption.
Bookworm Clubs and Other Reading Programs
A love of reading is one of the greatest gifts you can give a child, so I am always on the look out for programs that aim to get books in the hands of little ones. Close to home, the Jaffrey Public Library holds a year-round Bookworm Club and an ambitious summer reading program, as does the Ingalls Memorial Library in nearby Rindge. My own little New Ipswich Library, housed in the town’s former one-room schoolhouse, hosts an annual ice cream social, pajama reading groups, and other special events that have even included world-famous terriers. We have no read-to-a-dog program in our neck of the woods (yet!), but we have come across some in our travels that are described on my Publisher’s website.