Six Months In....

Hi Everyone~

Melissa here. Our fearless blogger , Amy Ehn, is out spreading her awesomeness across the US this week, so I thought I’d drop in and say hello.

So, hello…And thanks for stopping to read as we find ourselves six months in from the day our board submitted our Articles of Incorporation to the state of Oregon.

Wow… what a roller coaster it has been…

I’ve been contemplating the journey these past weeks and truth be told, was not feeling super accomplished. Granted, I’ve been hit with wonderful bursts of creativity and crossed items off To-Do lists a mile long, yet then thrown down into the trenches of the blahs and “this is never going to happen” mentality. Not so fun.

This week, I sit comfortably somewhere in between and have reflected on all that has happened and can feel pretty okay about the process.

I thought some of you may like to hear where we are at…

What we’ve got:
We are officially a corporation.

We have a rockin’ board that fundraise, build fences, share ideas, come to meetings and lend ENDLESS amounts of support (Thanks, BBB members!)

We should have our Oregon license to solicit funds ANY DAY NOW (yessssss!!!)

We have four fabulous ladies that proudly call themselves our fundraising committee (and we are seeking more- hint, hint) and we will be securing our donor software next month to track all of our donor and volunteer activity.

We actually had two volunteers come build fencing that were no family or friend relation to the Pfefferelli’s or the board - THAT is something to celebrate!!!

We had over $3000 donated by board member Amy Ehn (that she fabulously fundraised) that is the reason why our privacy fence and piggies pastures are half way completed!!! (Stay tuned- I think a party in the pasture will be happening upon completion)

We have connected with the Rescue Freedom Project and will allow us to rehome lab piggies when we are ready (and bunnies too!!!!!)

Can we say “Bunnies & Books Program”????

We have made connections with some yoga teachers (we are looking for more, please) so we can start doing Blue Barn Yoga by donation.

We are planning a Blue Barn Painting Party for late August or September- it’s going to be FABULOUS.

If Pigcaso can do it, so can we….

We are getting a new logo designed and it looks AWESOME.

After a meeting this Friday, we should be ready to submit our 501c3 paperwork so we can officially fundraise!!

Areas of Challenge: (like how I framed that?)

Turns out the application for 501c3 is written in a language that has take me QUITE some time to translate. Hence the six month application process. The good news is I understand what I’m submitting and I’m confident that it will be accepted the first time around. So there’s that. (Finger crossing couldn’t hurt here)

Upon investigation, we learned that just because a property has two barns and acres of pastures, doesn’t mean it can legally have a lot of animals or allow visitors for a business (nonprofit or otherwise). HUH- go figure…Soooo…..after a lot of phone tag and messaging, I am meeting with the county to see how creative we can get. And if we can’t, I have Plan B ideas swirling in my head that are being discussed and explored . Don't worry- we will still have animals, but we may have to change the structure and put some of our longer term goals to the front of the line a little quicker..But that, I feel, is another blog post…

So for now, know that baby steps are happening and when I give you our one year update, you can expect that we’ll be hitting you up for $$$ (because we got 501c3 approved, of course!) and there will be a few furry or feathered creatures taking up residence in the Blue Barn. I look forward to telling you all about it!!

Until then, we will be out there helping animals any way we can and asking you to do the same…

With Gratitude,

Melissa