Microsoft Intern Day of Caring

What a day- Friday was amazing, thanks to the Interns from Microsoft.

Over 40 Microsoft interns (and about a dozen full time MS employees) came out to work for the day at the rescue. We estimated that over 160 hours of work were done that day, saving us thousands of dollars and improving our farm considerably.

Here's what we got done:

• We dug a ditch from our barn to the drainage area, which will substantially reduce flooding in fall and winter. Many rescue horses come in with hoof disease and injuries, both of which are exasperated by mud so flooding is important for convenience and health.



• Our new ditch was filled with rocks picked from pastures – removing rocks is important because it protects the animals from stone bruises and injures and also saved us from having to buy gravel to fill our new ditch. Rocks in our ditches keep the water flowing in the right direction without letting the ditch collapse.



• We put in hogsfuel (an outdoor bedding made from cut down trees- eco friendly) so that we won’t have to put all the horses into indoor stalls at night. The hogsfuel gives them a comfortable place to rest and will reduce the amount we have to spend on shavings. Because of the recent closure of several saw mills, shaving costs are high so this is an important measure.



• We also installed posts for our sign in the driveway, a chore that we've wanted to get done for a while.



• One group groomed and photographed horses so we can better promote them and find them homes. It is also excellent practice for our rescues to be handled by a variety of people, so there were multiple benefits.



• We completed the re bar/stabilizing of our steps which gives us a safe place to get up and down our hill.

All of these projects were really needed but could not have happened without this Day of Caring.

As a nonprofit organization we rely on donations and grants for our funding and our suffering economy has affected us (along with other rescues) so we strive to reduce costs any way we can- on Friday we made some tremendous strides in this area, thanks to you all.

A special thanks to the committee that coordinated this event and our Serenity Volunteers who came out to spend the day helping lead these projects, and also those who helped us get items donated.

More photos from Friday are at: http://serenityequine.shutterfly.com/