Week 36 - Rescued Critters Food Drive

Hi Folks,

Almost as Good as a Ride Along

For years, I’ve had an open invitation for anyone who wishes to join me on my Sunday collections and my Monday deliveries. He or she just has to ask. To date, no one has.

On Saturday, Steve, my friend and neighbor, gave me four thirty-pound bags of cat food that were resting at our feet. (He had already dropped another bag at my home earlier in the week.)

We were standing in his driveway and my truck was parked at the curb 10 feet away. “What do you do with these,” he asked? I take them to PACC on Monday around 1 pm after they open at noon, I responded.

Huh, I’ll bet a lot of folks have that same question, I thought. Then an idea jumped into my head. What if I take my camera phone and my Nikon SLR tripod on a Ride Along? (Velcro and duct tape was the glue that bonded the relationship.) This approach may help my participants see exactly how I collect, tally and deliver all their donations to Pima Animal Care Center.

To start, that’s me above admiring all their generosity … and Steve sure can see how much he is helping rescued cats.  

Next, I carefully load the truck. There was so much food this time I had to include my new black wheelbarrow. Notice the camera phone squeezed in some of the garden stuff, especially the milkweed on the right. 

With my truck in the background, the camera phone captured me struggling to balance the 160 lb. plus load and the PACC hours of operation sign.

PACC wants all the food donations delivered to the front desk, stacked neatly, of course.

I was drafted during Nam so I understand the concept of, “hurry up and wait” Interesting that the camera phone caught some of that military bearing.

PACC calls them clerks, (see the bottom of the receipt below), but I prefer Customer Service Representative. Those folks have to know a lot in addition to just taking cash and in-kind donations. The wait sometime is 10 or 15 minutes because the CSRs must explain the whole process to people adopting a pet that includes pet owner responsibilities and medical services provided by PACC. They never let a pet go without lots of paper signing and lots of words about pet care.

My turn comes and it only takes a few minutes to complete the transaction. The CSR counts the money and then tells me the amount. I check my Inventory Sheet (below) to see if we match. We always do because she’s good and I check my work many times before I get to PACC.

All the cash and check donations are counted according to denomination. Even the change is counted in four different sandwich bags. That helps me keep the count straight and helps the CSR make an accurate count … every time.

The food is counted by adding the ounces of each can size and dividing the total by 16 ounces.

Lastly, special items like harnesses, towels and pill bottles are listed in the last column.

The In-Kind form is filled out before I go to PACC. It’s an honor system and is similar to Good Will. The donor is responsible of the accuracy of the form and the value, if any, placed on the donation for tax purposes. None of the Rescued Critters Food Drive donations are given a tax value nor does anyone claim a tax credit. We are strictly a donation vehicle, not a legal entity such as a non-profit.

This is the official cash and check receipt. It is stapled to the In-Kind form and the Inventory Sheet. Each week has these three documents as our official record. From time to time we compare notes with PACC accounting to make sure everything we donate is recorded accurately.

The Best for Last

This week we donated 165.0 lbs. of pet food and $58.96 in cash and one check.

So, in Week 36, we reached our annual PACC donation goal of 4,333 lbs. In fact, we surpassed the goal by 194.4 lbs. for a total of 4,527.4 lbs. This is very exciting to me because we have 16 more weeks to go before our first-year anniversary date.

This is more than wonderful … and just think about how many pets we are feeding. Remember, one pound feeds a lot of little dogs … or one big one. We’re feeding thousands, big and small.

See you Sunday,

Peter