Raystede News Archive; 2009

Sandpark Holidays; For you, your pets and Raystede!

Come and enjoy a relaxing break in the heart of North Devon and enjoy all the delights this area has to offer. Sandpark Holidays accommodation is comfortable and well equipped with every facility provided to make your stay a pleasure. Pets are very welcome and they even offer a dog sitting service by arrangement to allow you the freedom to visit those places in the area that are not dog friendly.

Sandpark Holidays has very kindly set up an 'affiliate' scheme with us here at Raystede; if you book a stay with them and mention Raystede, then we receive a very generous 10% of your booking price, towards our animal care!

All's Fair at the Fayre!

Raystede held its annual Christmas Fayre on Sunday 6th December and we were not only blessed by sunny, dry weather but also by hundreds of visitors. Everyone had a great afternoon browsing the many stalls with Christmas and animal goodies; visiting Santa in his amazing grotto; eating roast chestnuts and sampling the mulled wine or singing along to the carols with the LGB Brass Band. I want to say a huge THANK YOU to all of the staff and volunteers who helped make the event so successful and not forgetting those people that came along on the day and gave us their support.
As always, check out a selection of photographs taken on the day at our Photobucket page .

We raised a whopping £5,564 in three hours on the day, and with the postal draw tickets the Grand Total came to £11,468.

See you all next year!

Shop For Your Pets; Shop For Raystede!

Located in the heart of Brighton, A. Coombs Pet Centre has been running now for over 75 years. It was first established back in 1934 and has stood the test of time by surviving two global recessions, a world war and an over haul in the pet industry. It is one of if not the oldest pet shop in the UK.


This year A. Coombs celebrated it's 75th anniversary by launching a website. The website sells everything that you can find instore from Cat, Dog, Small Animal Foods to cages and fish tanks. There are hundreds of products already online and more being added daily. A. Coombs is open 7 days a week.

A. Coombs has kindly set up an 'affiliate' program with Raystede; If you shop with A. Coombs online, by following this link, for every purchase you make, Raystede will earn 5% commission back. So not only are you helping your own pets, but local business and Raystede, all in one!

World Animal Day Dog Walk.

Our sponsored dog walk was a great success celebrating World Animal Day this Sunday 4th October and raising funds towards the new dog  play area we plan to build next year. Your hard work raised us well over £1000, so thank you to everyone that walked, sponsored and helped with the day. You can see pictures of the event here.

Swimming For Charity.

Thanks go to all who took part in the Swimming Pool Channel Swim held at Roedean School in the Spring of this year. Brighton Swimming Club raised an amazing sum of £570 through sponsorship and presented the proceeds to Nigel Mason, Chief Executive recently.

In photo from left to right, Alex Carter, Cathy Stuart, Nigel Mason and Janet Lowe.

Chailey Heritage School Visit.

Raystede hosts a visit organised by Graheme Kirker, Rotary Club of Lewes, of pupils from Chailey Heritage School. Jason Caulfield our Animal Care Manager, took the teenagers on a tour of the site to meet the many animals staying at Raystede. After a hearty lunch in the Cafe, they then joined Lucy Owen our Education Development Officer, for a hands-on session of filling kongs with dog food to give our dogs some excellent enrichment. Thank you to all involved in the visit and we hope to see you back soon.

Full of Energy.

We are grateful to a team from EDF energy who spent a day with us on Thursday 10th September helping to renew a boardwalk access into our wildfowl sanctuary. The new access will allow visitors, including wheelchair users to visit the wonderful wildfowl lakes at Raystede.

Raystede Rangers, Summer 2009 report.

During the kids' summer holidays, our new Education Development Officer, Lucy Owen, was busy running special events for children, exploring our 50 acre site with trails, games and activities based on the animals we care for.

We're pleased to report that The Raystede Rangers and Small Furries Clubs were huge successes and more events will be forthcoming for half-term.

A big collection of photographs from the events are now available over at our PhotoBucket site. See if you're there!

It's a wild, wild life..

Raystede operates a small, yet active Bird and Wildlife Hospital. Since 2005, Wally the pigeon has been a resident and now you can follow Wally's diary on LiveJournal, keeping you up to date with the comings and goings of the wildlife Raystede cares for. (Opens in a new tab/window).

Garden Accounted For.

A charm of 30 auditors descended on Raystede this Friday (31st July). They came from the far reaches of Baker Tilly Accountants & Financial Services in the South East and spent a very productive afternoon building raised beds for our new education garden. Thanks to Simon Shimell and the team, the project was completed on time along with fences creosoted and the whole team still had time to take account (sorry couldn't resist!) of the centre with a behind the scenes tour.

Our thanks to everyone involved and we hope you'll all visit again to see the fruits of your labour.

For more photographs, head over to our PhotoBucket site.

Responsible Gardening!

Responsibletravel.com came out of their office in Brighton for the day recently to help us lay a vast lawn which is part of our new education garden. The 15 members of the team arrived on a beautiful sunny (and very warm) morning and after a quick cup of tea, launched into work, fetching, carrying, laying, cutting and watering the new turf. Late afternoon saw a flurry of work and great team spirit to “get the job done” and we captured the moment! Lucy Owen, our new Education Development Officer was amazed to come back from a short break and find a whole new facility at her disposal saying “What a brilliant transformation, the kids are going to love this”.
All the staff at Raystede say a big Thank You to Responsibletravel.com and we hope to see them back next year!

News update: the rain we have had over the last couple of weeks may not have been welcome by everyone but it has been a real bonus at Raystede as our new turf has “taken” really well and has already knitted together and is growing. The 30th July saw the inauguration of the first Raystede Rangers club members to use the new Education Garden as we now call it.

Raystede Summer Fayre 2009 - Thank You!

Thank you to everyone who came out to support Raystede during our annual Summer Fayre; supporters, visitors, volunteers and staff!

You helped us raise a fantastic £12,440 on the day!
Including prize draw tickets and entry to the fun dog show, the final total was £16,500!

(Click on the image to the right to view the thankyou image on a separate page.)
Photographs from the event are on our new PhotoBucket site.

Raystede Kitten Diary.

In the Raystede cattery section, six pregnant cats have been signed over to us during spring and summer. Follow this diary of the lives of proud mothers; Sapphire, Luna, Angel, Boots, Cece, Winnie and their kittens and see what happens from birth right up to the time the kittens are signed out to new homes!

Raystede Kitten Diary - 8th part now online, plus videos!

Utility Warehouse - savings for you, fundraising for Raystede.

The Utility Warehouse Discount Club provides over 200,000 households throughout the UK with home phone, mobile phones, broadband, gas and electricity.
By switching to their utility services, not only do you save yourself money, but you also help raise money for Raystede!

Find out more by following this link to our How To Help page.

New Stuff for Kids at Raystede!

This Spring saw the appointment of our new Education Development Officer, Lucy Owen. With years of experience of teaching animal welfare outside the classroom, Lucy is bursting with great ideas to involve youngsters with our work at Raystede - from curriculum-linked school visits, to fun-filled kids clubs over the school holidays.

Education visits will be based from ‘The Den’ – which was formally the small animal room behind the visitors centre. From The Den, groups will explore the 50 acre site with trails, games and activities based on the animals we care for. We will be outside for most of the day – weather permitting. However, if the weather isn’t as sunny as we would like, our fun outdoor classroom provides a perfect place to shelter from the elements.

For further information about the new Education Initiative or the Summer events for kids, follow the links to our education site.

If you are a school, youth group, brownies, guides, scouts etc and would like to talk to Lucy about arranging a visit, please contact education@raystede.org or call 07932 152687.

Summer Events.

The Raystede Team are appearing at a number of events across the East Sussex this summer to raise awareness of the great work we do for animal welfare and to promote the launch of the new education programme.

Lucy, the new Education Development Officer will be providing some fun-filled activities for kids to make & do- from clay creatures to animal ear-hats and tails, there will be a chance for all ages to have a go at an animal-themed creation. The animal welfare team will also be on hand to answer any animal-related questions you may have – or just to say hello and tell you more about the diverse and fascinating work we do at Raystede.

Click here to view the gallery of photos from these events – you and your artwork could be there...

Raystede Video Diary DVDs.

What better way to keep up with the goings-on at Raystede, than with the Video Diary?
See what's been happening in every section here at Raystede in our 40 minute presentation, reported by the staff and narrated by Raystede President, Mr. Morgan Williams.
Each DVD costs £4.99 plus £1.00 postage and packing.

All orders of DVDs to;
Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare Limited,
The Broyle,
Ringmer,
East Sussex,
BN8 5AJ.

All cheques made payable to Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare Limited.