Santa helps deliver surprise donation to Baiting Hollow horse rescue
Christmas may be a month away, but Santa Claus is already in the giving spirit.
Santa and Mrs. Claus took a break from the North Pole to visit a horse rescue farm in Baiting Hollow Saturday afternoon. Joined by more than two dozen others, they surprised the farm with a $1,660 donation.
“This is a very emotional day for us, because our funds are very low,” said Heather Davis of Rocky Point, who volunteers at North Shore Horse Rescue. “This is amazing.”
The festivities were organized by Chris Court of Manorville. In June, she surprised the farm’s owners with a delivery of 1,500 pounds of donated horse feed. After the fundraiser’s success, she wanted to come up with another way to help the farm around the holidays.
The theme: “Santa to the rescue.”
“We know how hard you work,” Ms. Court said to the group during the presentation. “We know how low your funds are for the rescue. So for the last several weeks, all of these people helped to raise money for your rescue.”
They presented the volunteers with an oversized check.
Beth Springston, the treasurer for the horse rescue, said she received a text message from owner Laurel Palermo asking if she could go down to the farm Saturday. Ms. Palermo, who runs the farm with her husband Tom, had something come up and couldn’t make it.
How to help: Donations can be made here
As far as Ms. Springston knew, Ms. Court was coming to drop off pictures she had framed of the horses. She was confused at first and wondered why she needed to be there to simply accept pictures.
“Now I realize why, this was really fabulous,” Ms. Springston said. “This really helps because we just posted out annual appeal for 2019 and with Giving Tuesday, we already have a campaign up on Facebook, and we’re hoping that we’ll get a lot of funds for the end of the year.”
Ms. Davis FaceTimed Ms. Palermo during the presentation.
Ms. Springston said the funds will go toward hay, special medication that some horses require, and even could be used for an acupuncturist who treats some of the horses.
The farm is home to 15 rescue horses and other horses are boarded there through Gold Rush Farm.
Money raised goes strictly toward the rescue horses, Ms. Springston said.
“You have so many friends here who now know where your horse rescue is,” Ms. Court said. “I’m so glad that you’re here to accept this check.”
