S HELTER

APRIL

SHORTS
2013

Rivers & bluffs animal shelter

2013 Coming up
APRIL13th Princess for an Evening 17th- Pasta for Pets 18th-RABAS- Meeting

P RINCESS

FOR AN EVENING

Inside This Issue

2013 B OARD T REASURER S REPORT U PCOMING FUNDRAISERS O NGOING FUNDRAISERS O THER NEWS M EMBERSHIP RENEWAL R ABAS MEMBERS 2 2 3

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2013 Board of Directors

SHELTER SHORTS is a monthly newsletter intended to keep Rivers and Bluffs Animal Shelter volunteers and supporters connected. With everyones hectic schedules, we know it is often difficult, if not impossible to attend monthly meetings or to work at all of our fundraisers. Everyone is invited to submit articles for the newsletter. To do so, please call Bev at 608-326-2914 or email her at wyalusing2012@gmail.com.

President- Randy Paske 1300 East Wells Street Prairie du Chien, WI 53821 608-622-7855- repaske@gmail.com Vice-President Bev Pozega 32398 Gran Grae Road Prairie du Chien, WI 53821 608-326-2914 wyalusing 2012@gmail.com TreasurerJill Cipra 126 Randee Avenue, Prairie du Chien, WI 53821 608-326-4870 jbcipra@mchsi.com SecretaryTamara Aldrich 63513 Lohmann Lane Eastman, WI 54626 608-874-4223 traldrich1@mmm.com Board Member- Julie Whyte 322 South Wacouta Avenue Prairie du Chien, WI 53821 608-306-0499- chipndale322@hotmail.com Board Member- John Ryan 12890 Markley Hollow Road Bagley, WI 53801 608-996-2281 Board Member- Donna Heilmann 1702 East Fowler Street Prairie du Chien, WI 53821 608-379-2112- heilmann73@gmail.com

Monthly meetings are held on the 3rd Thursday of every month at the Prairie du Chien City Hall. Meetings begin at 6:00 p.m. Please use the back door. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend. The next general meeting will be held on Thursday, April 18th.
Planning Meetings will be held in conjunction with board meetings on the 2nd Thursday of the odd numbered months.

Volunteer hours will be collected by Randy P. at monthly meetings or you can email your hours to Randy at repaske@gmail.com.

Treasurers Report
Jill Cipra Treasurer

Check us out on the Web

www.riversandbluffsanimalshelter.org
Thanks to randy Paske for keeping this website up to date!

Current balance as of March 21st, 2013

$121,659.23
Checking Account Balance - $4,825.00; Total C.D.s- $116,834.23 Please Note: Jill withdrew $7,000.00 from our checking account and added it to one of our C.D.s

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Upcoming fundraisers
Princess for the Evening April 13th - Huckleberrys Restaurant and Banquet Hall Plans are nearly complete for this event. Sponsors have been contacted and confirmed: Paper Moon, American Family Insurance Ken Stoeffler, Dr. Donna Higgins, Tender Care Animal Hospital and Associated Bank. The DJ has been booked and paid for (he came down $25 from last year, helium has been ordered and it will be a donation, Jill picked up the beautiful corsages, donated by Kembles. Princess balloons and tiaras have been ordered. Mas Bakery will once again donate a Princess sheet cake. Jill is working on getting a cheese tray donated and has the newspaper ads ready to start next week. Thirty beautiful pink posters, designed by Brian have been distributed far and wide. Prairie Cinema is promoting this event on their big screens. Randy has the event on our website. Advance tickets are available at Piggly Wiggly, Tender Care Animal Hospital and Monkeys Tale. Huckleberrys will once again provide a free Princess Parfait to all princesses who dine there with their date prior to the dance. Lynn Rider will teach a group ballroom dance lesson. Monkeys Tale donated some princess items for limbo and hula hoop prizes. We will decorate the hall at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 13th. If you would like to help, know that you are welcome the more the merrier. The dance itself starts at 6:30. We still need a few people to bake cookies for the dance. I feel that most if not all of the prep work for Princess is done. All we have to do now is sit back and wait for the day to arrive and hope that the event will be well received. A few tickets have already been sold. Does anyone have a punch bowl we can use for Princess? If so, please contact Jill or Bev or reply to this email. Pasta for Pets Wednesday, April 17 Huckleberrys Restaurant and Banquet Hall- Serving 4:30 7:00 We will need people to bake cookies, bars, cakes, etc. for the dessert bar. Pasta for Pets includes a salad, pasta and dessert buffet. If you can bake a batch of cookies, a pan of bars, a pie, or any of your favorite recipes, we would be very grateful. If anyone can help with bussing tables, etc. that evening, again your help would be appreciated. Please let Jill or Bev know if you can bake or help on April 17th or reply to this email. Donna suggested that for people who plan to bake for Pasta, it would be great if the baked goods were in disposable pans or on paper plates. That way we do not have to figure out which pan goes to whom or take the time to deliver it to where it belongs. We have an excellent selection of silent auction items. Merilee has made it her mission to solicit items for the auction. Listed are some of the donations Merilee has obtained for the auction: Wilshire Jewelry pearl earrings, Dungeys Furniture candle holder, Tillers Furniture table lamp, Junipers wall art, Rockweilers knife set, Dental Associates blanket, LBB Auto Repair oil change, Kates Hair Studio hair care products, The Cannery- dog statue, oak trimmed oval free standing mirror (donated by Merilee), gift certificates from the following: Southwest Vet, Hungry House, Courier Press, Star Nails, Dairy Queen, Edwards Plumbing & Heating, BP North, Pizza Hut. Other donations to date: Phil & Deb Dwornik: hanging bird feeder, bluebird house, decorative bird house Deb Cross: thermal tote from 31 Gifts; pewter turkey feather earrings from Leah Meyer; hall tree from Tom & Loretta Jellings Deb Cross & Bev Pozega hand-crafted childrens wooden picnic table Barb Davis Carved from the Heart - a certificate for a large wood carving based on a picture provided by the bidder Culvers quart of custard a month for a year Donna will have dog tugs and dog treats for sale. Because of the number and value of some of the auction items, we are going to try a live auction in addition to the silent auction. Seth and Ryan Adams, of Adams Auction Service will donate their services for a live auction featuring some of the more expensive items. The live auction will start at 5:30 p.m. and may last about an hour. 3

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RabasRabas- ongoing fundraisers

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Kwik Trip gas cards

Kwik Trip Gas Cards sales from February 22 through March 15th totaled $5,555.00, resulting in a profit of $555.00 for RABAS. I know everyone gets tired of me going on and on about the Kwik Trip Cards. But if we could continue to do every month what we did in March, that would mean $6,000 in profit for this very worthwhile organization in a years time. As we hopefully move closer to land acquisition, these gas cards could become very important as to how soon we start the building process and what type of building we will be able to afford. For those of you who want to support Rivers and Bluffs, but do not have the time to help at our many fund raisers, please consider purchasing Kwik Trip cards from Jill, Donna or myself before filling your tank. I am not asking that you go door to door trying to sell these cards. I am only asking that you get into the habit of calling one of us before you purchase gas or other items from Kwik Trip. Again, thanks to everyone who supports Rivers and Bluffs Animal Shelter through the purchase of these cards. If you have purchased them in the past, but no longer do so, would you please reconsider doing so again? Cards will be delivered on the same date as requested or the next day by calling Jill or Bev. Jill can be reached at 326-4870 and Bevs number is 326-2914. Or you can reply to this email. I promise, if we can increase the sale of these cards, I will get off my soap box and all you will hear from me about the cards is how much we make each month.

Make checks payable to RABAS

phoneraiser
Phoneraiser We recently received a check from Phoneraiser for $44.89. Thanks to everyone who saves their inkjet cartridges and old cell phones for RABAS. Thanks also to Donna Heilmann who takes care of shipping these items to Phoneraiser on a regular basis.

U. s. bones
Please continue ordering cat and dog treats from USBones.com. They donate 25% of each order placed, to RABAS!

Dr. donna higgins wildlife photos

Dr. Donna Higgins continues to support RABAS through her beautiful wildlife prints on display at her office in downtown PdC. She has recently changed the format to 12 x 12 prints in borderless clip frames. Donna explains that these may be more affordable at $35 each. She will donate $25 to RABAS for each print she sells. These prints are absolutely beautiful! Please stop in at Dr. Higgins office, downtown PdC to see them. You may be able to see them on RABAs facebook page or Donnas facebook page, or possible on our website.
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Bluebird houses
Bluebird Houses Anyone Mike Kluesner, (Randis husband) has been busy making bluebird houses. If anyone would like to buy one, please reply to this email or call Randi and Mike at 563-873-3839. We are looking for places to market these bird houses. If you have any ideas, please let Bev or Randi know. We are hoping to sell them at the True Value Food Stand in May and also at the McGregor Arts and Craft Fair the first 2 weekends in April. All proceeds from the bluebird houses will be donated to RABAS.

More upcoming fundraisers

Friday, May 10 and Saturday, May 11thNelson True Value Food Stand and Bake Sale Weather permitting, this is usually a profitable fund raiser. Once again, we will need volunteers to work and volunteers to bake. Donna Heilmann and Bob and Diane Witt are the volunteers on Friday. If anyone would like to join them on Friday, please let me know. We will need workers also for Saturday. Bev will be available for Saturday but will need some help. If anyone would like to help either Friday morning for set up or Saturday for take down, that would also be appreciated. If you can bake, help with setup or take down or help with the food stand, please reply to this email or call Bev at 326-2914. Thursday, May 30- Rooster Andys Chicken Q Rickleff Plumbing and Heating at the corner of Blackhawk Ave. and Marquette Road This is an all-day fund raiser and last year I believe we made over $3000.00. It was not without trials and tribulations, but we are hoping for a repeat of the customers and better service from Rooster Andys. They could not keep up with the demand last year. We will need a number of people to help with this. I believe we will need to be there by 9 a.m. and it closes at 6 p.m. If you cannot work all day, even a part of the day commitment would help greatly, especially over the noon and supper rush hours. Pals and Pause For a Cause 5K Dog Walk is scheduled for Saturday, June 29th. Somehow a few of us thought it was to be held on June 22nd. But after going back through emails, we realized it was planned to be held on the 29th of June. The Jaycee Picnic Shelter has been reserved for that date. I apologize if I had anything to do with the confusion (and I probably did). Work has started on this, but not much has been done yet. I believe we decided on prices, Randy P dug up the logo from the first dog walk we did a few years ago. The logo has a dog with running shoes and our RABAS logo. I believe we decided to order tee shirts for this event, but only people who pre-register will receive one. This way, the shirts will basically be paid for by those who will actually receive a shirt by pre-registering. And those people will get the proper size that they ordered when they registered. We need to get moving on this ASAP if we are going to do it.

Prairie Pool Puppy Paddle- Saturday, August 24 For now, just save the date. More info will follow.

Rabas- Past fundraisers

Pampered Chef A big thank you goes out to Deb Cross and Kristie Austin for coordinating the Pampered Chef fund raiser. It was an easy way to raise approximately $300 with very little effort. Thanks also to everyone who ordered from Pampered Chef for this fund raiser. 5

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Other news

Dog Obedience Classes - I do plan on having another class which will start in early April. Classes will be held on a weeknight and with the warmer temps (hopefully), we will have them outside in the fenced in area. If you or anyone you know are interested, please have them reply to this email or call me at 326-2914. Pet Food Pantry Southwest Vet still had one box for pet food donations. I picked up the remaining donations as well as the box on Monday. I called 2 of the people whose numbers I had and made arrangements to deliver the food to them. As in the past, they were very grateful for the donation.

Adoptions, Losses, People Looking for a New Pet, Pets in Need of a Forever Home I believe that this was a quiet month for adoptions, rescues, new homes for RABAS. As far as I know, there are none to report. Jill and Brians recently adopted kitten, Pickles is thriving to say the least. Both Jill and Brian are thrilled with their new addition. Pickles is the affectionate cat that they have been wanting for quite some time. I have not talked to Sandy and Ken Vold for quite some time about their rescue of Foxy, the American Eskimo Dog. I am assuming that no news is good news and that all is well. BINGO After considerable research and discussion, the board voted to reconsider Bingo as a fund raiser. Equipment, supplies and licenses would cost at least $1000.00. The Bingo display board weighs 100 lbs. and would need to be moved to someones house or the storage shed after every bingo. It is large and cumbersome to move. The number of reports that need to be filed are very time consuming. I talked to Kati Forsythe who is in charge of the Bingo program at St. Gabriel School. She said there is one report that needs to be done twice a year and it takes her at least 6 hours to do just that one report. We may revisit Bingo at some time in the future. I would like to thank everyone who stepped up to volunteer to work at Bingo. I believe we had 15 volunteers who said they would help. I would also like to thank Skemps for once again offering to help us by hosting Bingo at Huckleberrys and providing the meal. Tee Shirts, Sweatshirts, Hoodies, anyone? We are going to place an order with Sports World for tee shirts to be sold at Pasta for Pets (if I can get the order in soon enough) and True Value in May as well as any other upcoming events. If you would like to order a crew sweatshirt, zip hooded sweatshirt or a regular hooded sweatshirt, a long sleeved tee shirt (I hope we can order these) or a tee shirt in your favorite color, please let me know. I hope to place the order with Sports World by Friday, April 5th. Please call me at 326-2914 or reply to this email. We are ordering tees to be sold at fund raisers in 3 different colors kiwi, maroon and grey and 3 different sizes M, L, and XL. Cost to members who order a tee shirt or sweat shirt will be as follows: tee shirt$8.99, Crew SS - $13.99, Zip Hoodie - $25.49, Hooded Sweat Shirt - $20.99. I am not sure how much long sleeved tee shirts are, but a few people have ordered them so I will find out. For XXL, add $1.50 each and XXXL add $2.00 each. There will most likely be a slight additional charge for ink change as based on the colors people ordered, some shirts will look better with black printing and others will look better with white printing. But we can divide that charge between all the orders so it will not be much.

Land Acquisition Once again it seems as if nothing is happening, but I do know that the wheels of government turn slowly, but hopefully surely. Randy, Bob and Diane Witt and I attended a city council meeting in March. The letter that was written to Aaron Kramer requesting the City Council open discussion on the possibility of a lease with the city was given to the Council members at that meeting. Aaron directed Council member to start thinking about possibilities that may work and then turned the project over to the Public Works Committee. To date, we have not heard anything more. Randy did email Aaron just this week. Aaron replied and said Randy should come up with a date for another meeting. That date is being decided and will hopefully take place before the next RABAS meeting. 6

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Other news

Therapy Dog Teams On Monday, March 4th, Merilee and her dog, Tuck, Marjie and her dog Emmy and I made the drive to the Family Dog Center in LaCrosse. Therapy dog testing was to be that night at 6 p.m. The forecast for the day was a winter snow warning. Merilee called the FDC to see if the testing would be postponed because of the weather. She was told it would not because 90% of the teams being tested were from LaCrosse. The snow that was forecast all day, never materialized by the time we left PdC at 3:30. When we arrived we were disappointed to learn that the testing had been canceled because of the weather. But we made a night of it anyway. The FDC is a beautiful place to train dogs and Tuck and Emmy got some extra practice in. As far as we know, the new date has not yet been set. We are waiting for Laurie from FDC to contact me with the new date. In the meantime, we have been working hard to ensure that these 2 dogs will pass. Tractor Supply lets us practice whenever we want. Last Saturday, a number of us met and worked on meet and greet. Marjie and Emmy recently visited Prairie Maison with Kathy and Digger. According to all reports, Emmy did very well and was very well received as are Kathy and Digger. Merilee and Tuck were scheduled to visit there on Monday of this week. I apologize to Merilee for not asking her Furry Godmother Do you need someone to take care of your furry little friend while you are on vacation or just out of town for the day? Fret not. Your Furry Godmother is only a phone call away. Reasonable rates and very dependable. Call Brenda Wilson Furry Godmother at 608-317-7001.
Thanks to everyone who volunteered this month. Thanks to everyone who supported us through donations, and memberships. There are many jobs that continue to get done without recognition.

Membership renewals and donations

Donations All donors are recognized in Shelter Shorts and a thank you note is written. Nancy Klossing- Nelson True Value donation from popcorn machine- Brenda Wilsons Retirement Party- Ray Wrobel Princess for the Evening Sponsors: Dr. Donna Higgins, Tender Care Animal Hospital, Associated Bank, Paper Moon (check received last month), American Family Insurance Ken Stoeffler Agent (check not yet received)
New Members and Renewal MembershipsMembership renewals are current through March 21, 2013

Sandy Kittle Sponsor,

Linda Bedward Family, Linda Munson-Sponsor, Don and Eileen Klatt Monthly Pledge

Julie Whyte Individual, Mollee Whyte- Student

Membership Renewals Memberships are good for one year. There are 5 different levels of membership:
River and Bluffs Animal Shelter Membership Form Student - $5.00 ____ Individual - $15.00 ____ Family - $25.00 ____ $_______ per year. Name:___________________________________ Address:_________________________________ City/State/Zip_____________________________ Email:____________________________________ Phone Number:______________________ Please mail membership form to: River and Bluffs Animal Shelter Sponsor - $50.00 _____ Patron - $100.00 _____ Benefactor - $500.00

Needed: Your email address!

Please include your email address when filling out your membership form. This is a fast and inexpensive method of communication. Postage, paper, envelopes and printing costs add up! Electronic mailing of the newsletter saves RABAS big $$$$!

I would like to make a monthly pledge of : ________ per month for a total of

PO Box 421, Prairie du Chien, WI 53821

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Patron members
Amy Enlow Paula Gutzmer Laura Nix Sharon Willoughby & Bryce Hinsch Bob & Diane Witt

Sponsor members
Marilu Bintz Jennifer Clements Lu DeGuzman Phil & Deb Dwornik Sandy Kittle Gary and Kathy Koch Linda Munson Bonnie Olson Tammy OBrien Daisys Troop 1074

family members
Randy & Linda Bedward Tom & Marjorie Bennett Sharon Boylen Donna Cipra Jill & Brian Cipra Mike & Mary Jane Faas Eric & Betty Frydenlund Randi & Mike Kluesner Randy & Kathy Paske Jim & Kathy Powers Jami & Ken Quick John & Judy Ryan Roberta Spires George & Mary Tilley Brenda Wilson

individual members
Tammy Aldrich Tori Armstrong June Burns Alexis Burns Deb Cross Dawn Eggers Kelly Fishler Donna Heilmann Janis Hein Joe Hunzeker Georgia Hutchinson Kristin Helgerson Kriegl Marty Leeman Kim Pinkham Merilee Pleggenkuhle Bev Pozega Rosemary Reese Sue Rider Shirley Wegmuller Julie Whyte

Monthly pledge member

Don & Eileen Klatt
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Student member
Mollee Whyte

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