Veri Oddfellow's Page

UPDATE: 7/28/08

Hiya Gang,

You may know that I'm in SL representing Great Strides, a RL nonprofit whose mission is: to promote emotional healing and growth in partnership with horses. (Yep, you read it right! ;-) Read all about us at: http://www.GreatStrides.org.

Anyway, we're holding BOTH RL and inworld auctions coming up in August and September and I'm wondering if you might be interested in donating items for sale in our auctions!

* Inworld, we've already secured a yacht, some buildings, equine artwork (photos and other media) and an amazing one-hour personal tour of the elven lands. The auction is planned for 8/9/08 at Lord and Lady Smadga's Horse Park.

* In real life, we have items donated by David and Karen O'Connor, gold and silver Olympic medalists in equestrian, a horse drawn carriage ride complete with a wine and cheese party for two, and some very upscale dinner packages at local restaurants (near Damascus, MD, USA). The event is planned for 9/6/08 at our farm.

This is an incredibly crucial year for the agency as we lost $75,000 in RL support due to shrinking local and state government support for nonprofits. On the other hand, we have strong positive momentum as we've greatly expanded our individual donor base, program offerings and board of directors.

I hope you can help us out inworld or IRL with an item, or by coming to our party! The inworld event will be at Lord and Lady Smadga's Horse Park – a lovely Dutch couple that have taken great interest in our work. The event IRL has a medieval theme – "A Knight to Remember" - and the evening will be a BLAST! (We still have sponsorship opportunities, too, inworld or IRL!)

Thanks for your support in whatever way you can help!

Please let me know what you can do,

Brad/Veri

Brad Lewis (RL)
Veri Oddfellow (SL)
Board Chair
Great Strides
http://www.GreatStrides.org

UPDATE: 5/16/08

Goliath in Need of a Boot - Great Strides Stunned by 150% Insurance Increase Out of the Blue

Great Strides Stunned by 150% Insurance Increase Out of the Blue

Our insurance provider for Workman's Compensation, IWIF (Injured Workers Insurance Fund) a virtual monopoly in our area, recently stunned us with a bill for a $5,000 increase in our coverage - a 150% increase. This rude surprise came out of the blue and while we have appealed the decision on the facts and complete lack of reasonableness we had to pay upfront or be ruled out of compliance with employment laws.


This has blown a significant hole in our budget, late in the year, and may well impact our ability to serve clients if that gap is not closed. This is a 2 month appeal to all of our friends and supporters to help us fight this unreasonable rise in our rates. Your help will make sure that this rude surprise doesn't impact client services, horse care or other critical budget items while we work to fight this insurance Goliath.

Help the David in this fight - in this case Linus (an appaloosa pony and co-founder of the agency) and the herd - to show the big, bad insurance companies that they can't treat us like this and get away with it.

Strike a blow for fairness and health - please contribute now. The herd can't wait and you can make the critical difference. Click >>here<< to donate now.

Thanks,

Brad & Terry Lewis, Human Founders
Linus, Equine Founder
The Great Strides Herd
www.GreatStrides.org

KATIE UPDATE 2/28/08

We just heard from Katie’s doctor and Katie is still doing very well! Dr. Hart said that they’re taking a culture of what’s in the wound to check and make sure the antibiotics are doing the trick, and they want to keep her over the weekend, but if the culture comes back with what they expect, she may be able to come home early next week!!!

Nothing is for sure yet, because they won’t have the culture results until Friday… but we just wanted to share that exciting update.

Thanks for all the support,

Brad Lewis
Board Chair
Great Strides
www.GreatStrides.org
Brad@greatstrides.org

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UPDATE: 2/22/08

Dear Friends,

Katie, a 5 year old Gypsy Vanner who lives at our farm and works with clients, sustained a rather severe leg injury this week. While we are pleased to report that she is recovering from her surgery, she will require several weeks of hospital care, followed by an extensive recovery period back home.

With seed funding from our JAM Fund, which covers extraordinary expenses for horses participating in our program, we are launching a fundraiser whose first priority will be to cover the cost of her surgery and subsequent care. The cost of the surgery alone is already exceeding our available funds by several thousand dollars. Any donations raised in excess of the cost of her care will be used to replenish the JAM fund.

Each and every member of our herd selflessly contributes to the healing work at Great Strides each and every day. Here is our opportunity to give something back when one of our herd is in need.

Please keep Katie in your thoughts as she begins her journey toward recovery. And, if you can, please make a contribution to the JAM fund in Katie's name. Any assistance you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

To help, please go to:

http://www.greatstrides.org/Katie2.html

or our Facebook Cause page

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/view_cause/6822?recruiter_id=2240190

and click on Donate or Donate Now.

Thank you one and all.

Brad

Brad Lewis (RL)
Veri Oddfellow (SL)
Board Chair
Great Strides
www.GreatStrides.org


UPDATE: 2/7/08

Yeeha! Great Strides is about to take over a new office space as part of the Nonprofit Commons. We're very excited and will be building a barn and offering rides, in the near future.

Also, we're working on planning a ride-a-thon to benefit the nonprofit. Write me for more information or if you'd like to ride or help out!

Best,

Brad


Brad Lewis
Board Chair
Great Strides
Brad@greatstrides.org
www.GreatStrides.org