Col. Potter's founder fills in the blanks!

Written by Danielle Rackstraw
Founder of Col. Potter

OF COURSE this made me weep. I remember over ten years ago when we didn't have a website yet . . . when we DIDN'T have a CairnRescueMentoring site yet . . . and I spent months and months FIRST putting together my vision and doing all the original forms, releases, contracts, you name it to back up this vision and to start with a foundation of knowledge.

I KNOW you have all read many times my comment to you all when George came into my office and sat down and said "HONEY, you have worked non-stop for months on this . . . what happens if no one joins, and how many people would have to join for you to feel what you did was worth while.

My reply to George was . . . if one more cairn could be taken in or saved, it would be worth it to me . . . and then I added . . . if I can get JUST THIRTY PEOPLE TO JOIN . . . . YES, my number was THIRTY PEOPLE . . . thinking of my friends on the AOL group and the Cairn-List who I KNEW already helped with many of my pleas for help on kids I learned of . . . many of whom are STILL with us here and helping in some way to work Cairn rescue, I would be happy.

Today, ten years later, we have 776 CRM members. We have 763 Cairn-List members . . . We have thousands of good hearts in our active databases who we can call on to help with transports, fundraising, home safety inspections, and you never let us down.

We have educated the community on the importance of rescue, and by the end of the year we will have pretty darn close to 3000 cairns that we have taken in . . . we have HONORED those who sadly passed away under our care, and we've celebrated the fact that with teams some were so ill and ready to die that they died or we gave them a made and a tag number and we brought them into our family to do the decent thing and that was holding them while they crossed the bridge . . . where we had them cremated and they are on our Memorial wall as well, NEVER to be forgotten.

Who ever would have thought that a darn hard working group such as CairnRescueMentoring would have a larger membership that our Cairn-List . . . SURELY NOT ME . . . Thank you everyone for doing what you are doing. WE ALL are making a huge difference.

Much love and appreciation,
Danielle
A VERY PROUD FOUNDER . . . who STILL ten years later works CP every day!