The South East Afghan Racing Club came along and put on a good race. The shop was open and there was Homer” the greyhound with his friends Minnie and Suzi to welcome everyone. Many Thanks to Anne Watson, Nichola and Mike Simms for bringing them along. Thank you to Peter Bailey for donating the lovely Hamper. Sumi Girl 12 years old came along to parade, she is the track record holder amongst other titles and is owned by Tanya Stevenson from channel 4 racing. We would like to thank the Staff and Management at the Central Park Stadium for all their help and continued support also to the Sponsors and to those who attended. The total amount raised for the evening was £2072.39 THANK YOU. HOMER HELPS FATHER CHRISTMAS It is a busy time of year for Father Christmas and his elves so Homer helps out with Bill and April to open the Canterbury Road Primary School Christmas Fayre in Sittingbourne. Everyone had a great day including April even though she spent the whole day lazing on her bean bag in typical greyhound fashion. The total amount raised for the school was £800 with stalls, games, barbeque and Father Christmas. WELL DONE and thank you for inviting us along we thoroughly enjoyed the day.
TRACK & TRAINERS The track continue to be very supportive and a great help in assisting us when we require them to do so, for which we are very grateful. A few of the trainers have given us some positive feedback saying that the Retired Greyhound Trust is a great help to them as they now have very few if any retired greyhounds in their Kennels. We welcome the feedback as without it we do not know if we are getting it right or wrong and therefore cannot improve the service to the Trainers or help improve the welfare of the greyhounds
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Ist Sunday in every month:For all new, old or potential greyhound owners there is a support group who meet on the first Sunday of every month at 10.30am outside the Visitors Centre at Riverside Country Park, Lower Rainham Road, Rainham, Kent. The aim is to support the owners and their greys to socialise the new greys to other breeds and generally have a good time. Sunday 12th July - A Countryside Experience at the Riverside Country Park, Lower Rainham Rd, Gillingham. Kent. From 11:00 am until 5:00 pm. Sunday 13th September - The Challock Goose Fair, Challock, Kent. From 10:00 am until 5:00 pm All details available on our website www.rgtsittingbourne.co.uk
NEXT ISSUE
ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING Yes, in March 2008 Elvis found a home with Leah and Geoff, You can read how he settled into home life on our website www.rgtsittingbourne.co.uk on the “feature” page. Some more good news is that Red has also found a home in 2008 with Kita, Another of our ex residents.
If you have a retired greyhound and have some funny or heart warming stories or if you have anything you would like put into the next issue or the website please get in touch. Email us at info@rgtsittingbourne.co.uk AND DON’T FORGET……… If you order from Amazon whether it is for DVDs, books etc go to our web site then click to Amazon by doing this when you order we receive a donation and at no extra cost to you. THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT
News Letter
ISSUE 7
Welcome to the seventh edition of the Sittingbourne RGT Newsletter as I am sure you know by now the aim of this newsletter is to try to keep you informed of what we have been up to. Here are few things that we have been doing over the past year and you can keep up to date with everything on our website
www.rgtsittingbourne.co.uk If you would like us to come along to your event and bring some dogs please contact us on 07802 762115 or email info@rgtsittingbourne.co.uk
REVIEW OF 2008 At the time of writing this newsletter I am pleased to inform you that we have homed 164 greyhounds. SPONSORED WALK—April April started with a Sponsored Walk at the Riverside Country Park in Rainham organised by the Medway Greyhound Support Group who meet once a month there with the greyhounds, this helps to socialise the dogs and gives owners a chance to discuss any issues they have with the dogs and swap stories. Although it was April it snowed but this did not deter any of us and the final count was 55 greyhounds and 65 people. The monies raised was split between us and Croftview. CHARITY NIGHT—May 9th May saw a record turnout for the charity night with over 1500 people. The total raised for the evening was £5029.16. 70 Retired Greyhounds some of whom were PAT Dogs (Pets As Therapy Dogs) and Medway Greyhound Support members as well as our own were in attendance and there were two parades to show our appreciation of the people that had homed them and to help raise awareness that greyhounds make great pets.
The South East Afghan Racing Club came along once again to support us and put on a very entertaining race which was won by ‘Twiggy’. We are grateful to the Club for supporting us time and time again and for helping to make the evening as enjoyable as possible. Bill Buckley accepts a cheque on the night for £1250.00 from Alvin Melville from Maidstone who raised funds for us by running the Flora London Marathon held on 13th April 2008. Alvin completed the marathon in 4 hours and 57 minutes, congratulations Alvin, well done and a big thank you to everyone that sponsored him. It was nice to see Noreen and Ann from the Mildenhall RGT on the evening who took time out from their busy schedule to come along and offer support, thanks Ann and Noreen. Caffyns of Tunbridge Wells sponsored the chance for people to win a brand new £10,000 Vauxhall Agila. Many thanks to Chris Loveys and everyone at Caffyns for their generous support. One of the many highlights of the evening was the ‘Super Hero’ race which consisted of some of the Kennel Hands and Stadium Staff dressing up as ‘Batman’, ‘Superman’, ‘Bananaman’, ‘Spiderman’, ‘Mr Incredible’ and ‘Buzz Lightyear’ to run a 199m flat race, but what they didn’t know until just before the race was that they had to do the last 100 odd yards on a ‘Space Hopper’!
‘Bananaman’ slipped into the lead and won the race but to me the star of the show was ‘Buzz Lightyear’ who had to be carried across the line still sitting on the space hopper by Bill Buckley and Tony Killingbeck! We would like to thank all the participants of the Super Hero Race for being great sports and I’m sure they will all be looking forward to what we dream up for them to do this year!!
A big thank you to Leslie and Ben who came along to help out together with Melissa, Belinda, Phil and Honey, who by now have all become old hands at this, Newcomer, Arlene came along to support us, so many thanks and hope she will be a regular. The weather was superb and it really felt like summer, it was going to be a busy day. We had a lot of interest and also gave out a lot of information. There was a fun dog show in which some of our ex residents Rocco and Luke entered and came away with some nice rosettes. The fly ball was fun to watch and I’m sure Nina and Nelly would have joined in if they could. There were various other attractions and activities such as face painting, arts and crafts even bonio icing, something for everyone, so all in all the day was a great success and we thank the Dog’s Trust for inviting us. KENT PET FOOD RUN—September
We would like to thank The Stadium and their Staff for all their hard work and continued support. A BIG THANK YOU also to all the Sponsors of the evening and to everyone that came along to help us. DOG SHOW—SITTINGBOURNE—June It was a lovely sunny day, we had a good pitch, right in front of the arena. We took along Ben and Millie from the kennels and Honey and Ben were there to lend a hand as well. We met all different breeds of dog and Ben and Millie enjoyed saying hello. Anne entered Minnie in the fancy dress section as Gypsy Rose Lee and came away winning. We were busy throughout the day with people visiting our tent and we gave out a lot of information. A big thank you to the Gibb family, Leslie and Anne for coming along to help us. DOGS TRUST FUN DAY—CANTERBURY-August For the Dogs Trust Fun day we decided to take Nina and Nelly, two of our recent residents in the kennel. They both enjoyed meeting new people and other dogs, we also had a visit from some of our ex residents who came along to say hello.
Every year the Suzuki Club - Kent go on a “pet food run” collecting donations and food which they give to their nominated charity. This year they decided to nominate The Sittingbourne Retired Greyhound Trust. A few of the members arrived at the kennels eager to walk the dogs, drink lots of tea and dive into the biscuits. Brian, Steve, Paul and Graham stayed at the kennel for a few hours chatting and walking some of the retired dogs. They raised £134.60 on their way to the kennels. A big THANK YOU to them from all at the RGT. CHALLOCK GOOSE FAIR—September For once Bill and myself were not the last to arrive. We had the trailer delivered so all we needed to do was unload the Merchandise. We decided to take one of our new additions to the kennel, Lady, she was really excited when we picked her up unlike April who had seen it all before and was very laid back.
The fair couldn’t have been on a better day, it was like summer and oh yes of course this was our summer. As far as we know there has been a fair on the site for many years and it has become more and more popular. There were craft stalls, cake stalls, fairground rides, dog show, farm animals and classic cars. Something for everyone. We were soon joined by the Gibbs family with Honey, who like April was very laid back and just could not wait to get to work, looking pretty. Mark, Julie, Bugsy and of course Wellington, he even met some other bassets….he’ll be forming a club soon. Attending events such as the Goose Fair are excellent because people can see what they are like first hand and also it helps to socialise the dogs as well. We had a brilliant day, even met Bonzo who was one of our dogs we homed in our first year he was a little greyer but looked very well.
which April, Elvis and Mouse went on with Leah and Geoff. There was so much to see and do you could even have your dog washed in the pampered pooch corner.
GREAT GREYHOUND GATHERING—September The day started off a bit foggy but the weather forecast was good and it promised to be a glorious day. We arrived at the Nottingham racecourse at 7:30 am which was a miracle really as we were one of the first to arrive for once. We pitched the tent and started to unload the merchandise, the van seemed like the Tardis as the stuff just kept coming out. We were not planning on taking much back so all of what we had was to be sold that day. By 9:00 am everything was set and April had taken up her usual position, on her bean bag and no one was going to move her this time. We could not have wished for a better day, there was a steady stream of people through the gate and I have never seen so many greyounds in one place, all different colours, shapes and sizes but it was not just greyhounds that could enter in the shows, there were opportunities for other breeds of dog as well. There were also activities for children as well, like go karting, bouncy castle farmyard pets and fairground games, there was also a sponsored walk around the race course,
THE GGG IS A DEFINATE MUST FOR 2009.
Leah and Geoff entered Mouse for one of the classes and she came third winning a lovely rosette and toy. Elvis, unfortunately did not win the “retired greyhound of the year” competition, but to us all of the greyhounds that we have homed are winners. We had a brilliant day, and spoke to a lot of interesting people. We raised £480.85 selling our merchandise. A BIG THANK YOU to Mark, Julia, Bugsy and Wellington. Leah, Geoff, Elvis and Mouse for their support. We all had a brilliant day and a good laugh.
MASCOT RACE—October Homer ran the 10th John Smiths mascot race in Huntingdon on 5th October where he finished mid field and raised £205 for us so Well done and Thank you from all at the Sittingbourne RGT.
CHARITY NIGHT Charity Night 28th November and 5th December All set and everything organised except one thing “The weather” Every night that week it had been a cold but clear evening but the heavens opened that day and despite the weather people came to support us, unfortunately the meeting had to be abandoned. The evening was set for a re-run on 5th December and although it rained there was a good attendance.