Helping Furry Friends: Beacon Cares for Every Creature
Published October 15, 2024 | Categories: Beacon News
Each quarter, through our BeaconCares program, we focus on a specific area of service to help those in need and make a difference in our community. Our theme for the third quarter of 2024: "Helping Furry Friends."
From lovers of household pets all the way to esteemed equestrians, everyone here at Beacon cares deeply for our four-legged friends. While our daily obligations don't typically meld with the world of animal care, we look forward to any opportunity to lend a hand (or paw). Luckily, our BeaconCares program offered our team members the perfect opportunities to do just that.
With our 3rd quarter theme, "Helping Furry Friends," we were able to help provide the resources and services needed to keep the Triad's animals happy and healthy. To cover the most ground and maximize our impact, our team split up, offering our services to two very important organizations in the High Point and Greensboro areas—one that offers therapeutic learning for disabled individuals through horseback riding and another that strives to provide permanent housing for displaced household pets. Continue on to learn more about how we got involved and how you can too!
Barnyard Beaconites
In August, our team traveled up the road to visit High Point's HORSEPOWER Therapeutic Learning Center. HORSEPOWER specializes in serving individuals with disabilities through education and activities with horses. The property is serene and beautiful, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't plenty of work to do!
We started our day by hand-delivering a number items donated by the Beacon team, including four containers of fly spray, apple treats, and four packages of allergy medicine to help keep the horses healthy and thriving. From there, we took off for the surrounding forest and got to work. Our team spent the afternoon digging holes, piling logs, and cleaning up the property, ensuring accessibility for future visitors.
Before our time there was over, we were invited over to the barn for a special treat. Our team members were so excited to meet, pet, and even feed the horses in their stables. We learned all their names and personalities—and trust us, some of these horses had quite the personality.
While touring the barn, HORSEPOWER's facilities manager, Theresa, shared stories of past visitors who overcame struggles with speech, learned to walk, and even recovered from PTSD while riding and walking with the horses. The HORSEPOWER team was so happy to have us visit and encouraged us to invite friends and family to join as volunteers any time throughout the year.
Leave the Ruff Work to Us
After our day at HORSEPOWER, our next destination for "Helping Furry Friends" was Guilford County Animal Services (GCAS). Some of our team members favorite pets were adopted from this shelter, so going back to help them out was an absolute no-brainer.
We arrived at the animal shelter bright and early, ready for a day of work (and hopefully the chance to pet an animal or two). But while our focus for the day was on making snacks for the pups to enjoy between meals, our trip to GCAS turned out to be quite the treat for our team.
The day started off with a tour of the state-of-the-art GCAS facility, opened in November 2021. A proud no-kill shelter, GCAS employs and works with volunteers who truly care about every animal they come across. As our gracious host explained, GCAS’s commitment to service goes beyond protecting and intaking stray animals. They also provide a haven for pets whose families are in ongoing custody battles, and similar situations that might put an innocent animal at-risk.
After touring and learning about GCAS, the rest of our day consisted of creating a delicious mixture of peanut butter, apple sauce, pumpkin puree, and plain yogurt for the dogs onsite to enjoy—frozen and spread onto a frisbee, just the way they like it. We also put together other frozen muffin-like treats to be topped with dog treats and shredded cheese. Our team finished several dozens of batches in record time, but we couldn’t have done it without our furry friend, Angel, who stopped by for a visit.
It’s safe to say, we left the shelter feeling full of love for all the animals and full of gratitude for the wonderful people that look after them.
A Paw-Fect Opportunity
Clearly, the Beacon team loves animals. (A lot.) Helping out these local organizations was incredibly rewarding, and we can't wait to visit again in the future!
If you're looking for new job in web design, digital marketing or IT services that also offers plenty of opportunities to give back to the community, look no further than Beacon. If you're an animal lover too then rest assured, you'll fit right in.
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