If you are unfamiliar with Sato Heart Rescue, we are a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization which is run exclusively by volunteers only. We operate for charitable purposes, bring education and awareness to the issues of animal welfare & neglect whom reside on the island of Puerto Rico. We provide transportation of dogs from PR to NH giving them a second chance at a beautiful life.
On Monday, we were met with a situation that would devastate our little organization. The owner of the home, where our little rescue operates from, called frantically alerting us that the rescue was flooded. We were all bummed to hear this, but didn't REALLY understand just how bad it was until a couple of our board members showed up at the home to assess the situation. Our jaws were on the floor. It was WAY worse than we had even imagined.
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Two feet or so of water had swamped the rescue house's basement. Our desk was half submerged in water, the printer ruined, the dog food ruined, all of our marketing supplies were ruined, everything was floating around - our dehumidifier, our space heaters...everything gone. Totally destroyed by Mother Earth's wrath. 😖
Sato Heart Rescue has suffered a catastrophic loss and unfortunately have had to place a temporary halt in our efforts with dog rescue so that we can deal with this devastating blow.
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"We basically have to rebuild from scratch to get that space in tip-top shape in order to resume "business as usual"."
It literally took ALL day to pump the water out of the basement. The drywall needed to be removed, everything down there was destroyed. The more we cleaned out the items down there, the more we were finding lost... ALL our cleaning supplies --water leaked in side the containers, our office supplies, dog supplies, our space heater to keep the pups warm in the colder months and our dehumidifier for the summer....everything lost.
You can see the original video where I ended up becoming a bit emotional over it trying to relay the story to our supporters.
People asking "How did this happen?"
Basically in a nutshell, the sump pump could not keep up with the amount of groundwater seeping through the basement after all the torrential downpours we've had the past week or so. The ground had been so saturated it had nowhere to go but up and into the rescue house's basement. That little pump tried with all it's might, but that too got submerged into the depths of the water!
With all that said, we need to be strategic with our plans to rebuild. So this does not happen again, we are in need of a much stronger sump pump system.
We will also need drywall replaced, taped, mudded, and painted - and then all pieced back together.
We are looking for volunteers to help us with these bigger issues (drywall/plumber/electrician- if you or your company can provide any of these services, our little rescue would be so grateful...and we will definitely acknowledge your support through our social media outlets. We can also provide community service letters or Tax ID if needed.
The picture below is what our current situation looks like. We will need to have the sump pump done first in order to proceed properly so this doesn't happen again.
We are also still looking for monetary donations so we can purchase construction items, promotional material for our events and to restock supplies -- and unfortunately due to this situation, we DID have dogs lined up for a flight to NH in about 10 days or so -- which was cancelled, so we have lost money on that end as well. 😭
Since my last video, we've raised even more money and so far we have raised $2,906. THANK YOU to everyone who has contributed!!! We are so thankful!
We have also been getting much needed items like dog food, treats, paper towels, we even got a desk & filing cabinet coming to us on Saturday! We still have other items that are needed in order for us to become operational again. Our other two big must haves are the space heaters and dehumidifiers. The state of NH has rules when it comes to live animals. The conditions have to be right in order for them to stay in a space. That includes having temperatures within their boundaries.
Which brings me to my next point, due to limited space in the rescue area - we are trying to get one large space heater and one large dehumidifier...instead of having 2 smaller units of each. But, we will be thankful and grateful for whatever is donated to us!!!! 😊
If you are able to help in anyway, the Board, volunteers and the dogs that we rescue would be SO grateful... If you can not donate at this time, please share our story to help us spread the word.
Donations can be dropped off at:
765 N. River Road,
MILFORD, NH 03055-5004
They can be left on the front porch if noone is home.
Monetary donations: https://bit.ly/3HvLN9K
Chewy wish list: https://www.chewy.com/g/sato-heart-rescue_b64535554
The quicker we can become operational again, the quicker we can get Ivonne and others like her to Sato Heart Rescue in NH where they can adopt their very own family and be given a second chance at a beautiful life. 😎😍🥰
THANK YOU!!!!
If you want/need more info or have questions feel free to reach out to me
603-391-1749
-Laurie
