Golden Shovel

Hello Friends.

If you could have been with me last Tuesday you would have seen a Goose doing the happy dance.  Why so happy?  As a few of you guessed from my photo clue in my last post we have broken ground on our new homeless shelter, yes complete with a pet area!!  Many thanks to so many of you who sent in green papers to help fund the pet area.  And guess what????  I was invited to the ground breaking.  Not only was I invited to attend but I was honored to also be asked to be one of the "important people" to lend a paw in breaking the ground.  Seriously I was.  I know you are thinking, "Oh Goose your MOM was the one asked to do that."  That is true butt I got my very own invitation.  So lets get to some pictures shall we.

There were lots and lots of people there.  They braved the bad weather, 15-20 mile an hour winds with gust of 40+.  Dirt and sand was blowing everywhere!  MOM had sand in her hair, eyes, ears, nose, EVERYWHERE. 

This is Pamela Atkinson.  If you know anything about homelessness then you know this beautiful lady.  She is the BIGGEST advocate for the homeless.  She is wonderful and spoke some incredibly inspiring words.  Besides Pamela, there were government type of people who spoke too.  MOM wishes she had a video of when each person spoke and when everyone clapped, I barked.  Hey I had to keep my paws on the ground so I did not blow away.

These are the three clergy type of people who represented the three founding churches who started St. Anne's all those years ago as a simple soup kitchen to feed the hungry.  Rev. Claudia  from The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, David Thomas from Elim Lutheran Church and Father Ken from St. Joseph's Catholic Church.  And while St. Anne's is no longer a faith based organization these three churches do so much to help St. Anne's help those in need.  Check out the shoulders of Father Ken.  That is the dirt and sand building up on his shoulders because of all the wind blowing about (and he was inside the tent, imagine how much sand my MOM and I, and others, got who where standing on the outside of the tent.)

I really wanted to take a ride on this big digging machine.

It helped provide a little bit of shelter for me from the wind.  OH, and do you see I wore my very best tie to this ground breaking.

That's my friend Rich giving me a drink from his water bottle.  Rich works at St. Anne's as the security guy.  Check out his hair blowing in the wind.  hahahha. 

Here I am ready to break the ground of the new facility which will be know as Lantern House.

These are the "important people" ready to break ground.  You may have noticed that my MOM must not have gotten the memo about what to wear.  I mean look everyone is in dressy clothes, even me, I wore a nice tie.  In MOM's defense she had just finished cooking lunch at the shelter and rushed over to the new site for the ground breaking.  BUTT I will say this: My MOM's shirt says it all about how we feel and what we see in this new facility.

And it has begun!  WOOOOOO HOOOOO!

You might ask, "Why the serious look Goose?"  Well you see my friends I know this is a very important moment, a sacred moment.  This is where lives will be helped and changed for both people and pets. 

For people like Lucy and her Boxer, Blue, who are sleeping on the floor in the lobby at St. Anne's because all the beds in the woman's dorm are full.  (Lucy and Blue have a place of their very own now).

This here is what the new shelter will look like.  Pretty awesome huh?

Here is the blue print of the entire shelter, complete with the pet area.

I even got to save a stick while I was at the ground breaking.

 

Thank you friends for all your support though prayers, money, and well wishes.  In about 10 months I hope to give you a tour of the new place.  We still have about 1.5 million to raise so we have all the funds we need for the shelter to be complete. 

Blessings,
Goose