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Past NewslettersP.E.P.A. June, 2010, Newsletter On Tuesday, 8th of June we had the monthly luncheon at the La Cueva restaurant in Oliva and on Saturday, 26th of June we had an auction at Les Galgues poligono in in Pedruguer at Aladdin’s store. Neither event was well attended by P.E.P:A. supporters, which was a shame. Our volunteers put a lot of work into these events in order to raise funds and it is disappointing when they do not draw a large number of people. But, we do raise funds at these events; the raffle at the luncheon raised 65 euros and the auction raised a wonderful 700 euros. We want to thank all those that helped with these events. A special thanks to Kris and Laurie Rapier the owners of Aladdin´s; Click here for more information. The P.E.P.A. luncheon in July will be on the normal second Tuesday, which is the 13th of July (don´t worry “Martes trece” is not unlucky for foreigners in Spain). We are going to the Oliva Tennis Club on the recommendation of several our members. The menu, price and directions are given on one of the attachments to this newsletter. If you have any questions please call me at 962808332. Don’t forget to send in recipes for the cookbook that P.E.P.A. is planning. We received several inputs the first week, but entries have slowed down since then. Information can be provided by Janet at the number listed above. I know I don’t have to tell you to stay out of the heat, but remember to protect your animal pets also. Too often dogs are left in parked automobiles during the summer. See you soon. Joe Goodwin
P.E.P.A. April 2010, Newsletter Since my last newsletter, we held our auction in the grounds of the beautiful Hotel Falconera in Marxuquera, hosted by the owner, Yves. And, thanks to Kris and Laurie Rapier of Aladdin’s in the Pedreguer Poligono, who auctioned the items, PEPA raised 210 euros in sales. Also, a big thank you to Joy Potter who, as usual, tirelessly worked all morning and sold 72 euros worth of books. We were also very fortunate to have later raised an additional 117 euros from the items not sold at the auction. We received this extra money because Kris and Laurie very kindly took all non-sold items back to Aladdins and sold them during the following couple of weeks. They are very confident that most, if not all the items will be sold from Aladdins. Needless to say Aladdins are donating all the money received to PEPA. Apart from thanking Yves we would like to thank the Snells for operating their sound system, which, made all the difference in making the day a success. Also, thank you to those who donated goods, and to those who made purchases. Another activity at the end of March was the AGM. Thanks to all the members who attended as I was quite worried we would not have a quorum. The election was held and the volunteers who ran for president and board members were unanimously re-elected. Please join P.E.P.A. and become a volunteer and participate in the work going on. Call me at 96 280 8332 if interested. In April the PEPA luncheon was held at La Cueva in Oliva where the ambience and food were enjoyed by our supporters. We collected a €100 in the raffle which was great, plus La Cueva donated money they had raised by selling books plus money collected in their swear box (let’s hope their customers keep on swearing!). Thank you very much to Helen, Sarah and all the staff for their support and good work. On Saturday, 15th May our PEPA luncheon (note the change from the usual Tuesday!) will be a combined occasion with S.P.A.M.A. and will be held at the Moli Canyar Restaurant in Potries. It will commence at 2.00p.m., preceded by a book sale (from, 11.00.a.m.). PLEASE READ ATTACHMENT WHICH GIVES THE MENU FOR THE LUNCH. Because it is a joint affair we are expecting a lot of people, so it is necessary to choose your menu and telephone us with your choice ahead of time. We do so hope that you will be able to come and give your support, but should you not be able to make the lunch come at have a look at the wide range of books on offer – and, as you know, they are always at very cheap prices.
For those who do not know the Moli Canyar you will be pleasantly surprised to see that it is a restored sugar mill with several mills and equipment from previous times. For those who do know it already will see that they no longer have a buffet at mid-day, but serve a regular menu. In order to rebuild the PEPA funds, we called a temporary halt for about six weeks to our feral cat sterilisation programme. Now, with funds nicely adjusted we have commenced operations once more and are making booking with various veterinarians who support us by giving us discounts. So, if you have a problem with too many feral cats, please call Joe at 96 280 8332. We have equipment which we can loan you and providing the funds hold up we can help with the costs, but we do ask for a minimum of a 20€ donation per cat.
19th March, 2010
P.E.P.A. March, 2010, NewsletterThe monthly luncheon last month was held at the L’Irlandes restaurant in Castello de Rugat, with 29 people attending which was an excellent turnout! P.E.P.A. collected 95 euros from the raffle. We would like to thank all those people who donated prizes and those who bought raffle tickets. These raffles are a very good source of funds for P.E.P.A.’s work, so we are very appreciative. We have just about paid off our outstanding bills, and will soon have built up enough reserve to will enable us to continue with feral cat sterilisations. At the moment we have a backlog of about 18 cats awaiting sterilisation. Next Friday, 26th March, we will be having our auction and book sale at the La Falconera hotel (see the attachment for info). We will be most grateful for any support you can give us, either by joining in the auction, or just popping in to buy a book in the lovely gardens of La Falconera hotel. Then, on Tuesday, 30th March we will be having our Annual General Meeting at 12.00noon at L’Irlandes. For the AGM we are hoping for a large turnout of members in order to meet the Spanish government requirements, but, in addition we invite all interested parties to attend. At the meeting there will be a President’s Report, together with Reports from the Treasurer; Charity Shop; Help Desk; Animal re-homing; Feral cat sterilisation programme; Events and raffles/rastros/booksales. All reports will be distributed for your information. We would like to make all areas of the operations of P.E.P.A. available to you, but if there are any omissions or items requiring further information please let us know. In April we will be having the monthly luncheon on the third Tuesday of the month at La Cueva in Oliva. We will let you know what the menu will be soon. Please try to make it to the auction/booksale at La Falconera and the AGM luncheon at the L’Irlandes. Joe Goodwin
20, February,2010 P.E.P.A. February, 2010, Newsletter On the 9th of February we had the P.E.P.A. luncheon at the La Cueva restaurant in Oliva. Dorothy Jordan, our new membership is sending emails and snail mail to those who have not renewed their memberships yet. We hope you renew and support again this year. The rates this year are 12€ for a single household subscription and 20€ for two subscriptions in a household. Forms can be found at our website; www.pepaspain.com See her at any of our events, drop your form off in the charity shop, or snail mail the form and cheque to our address at the end of this newsletter. The financial situation for P.E.P.A. is that we are low on reserve funds at this time, but we are holding off doing any feral cat sterilisations until the reserves are replenished. The procedure we use is; funds are given to the abandoned animal programme first and the funds not required for that programme are used to pay for the feral cat sterilisation programme. In this way we use the feral cat programme to control that P.E.P.A. does not go financially in the red. After a sale of reduced prices at the P.E.P.A. Charity shop a great many items were sold and on Monday, February 8th, Jan White and a group of volunteers restocked the shop with more recently donated goods. Many thanks to them all for their hard work. So drop in and see what is available and donate any of your unwanted goods for resale. Remember we no longer sell electrical goods. Various events were listed on a hand out at the last luncheon and a copy is available in the
Charity shop and the information is included at the end of this newsletter. Be sure to look it over and notify us (96 280 8332) if you want to reserve space. In the past many of our
supporters were not getting enough notification time of events and we had to turn down
people asking for reservations. We hope to let every one know in plenty of time to get Our normal monthly luncheon will be on the second Tuesday of the month; March 9 at The L’Irlandes restaurant in Castello de Rugat. Call me for reservations by Friday, the 26th of February for reservations, 96 280 8332. Every year in March we hold our annual general meeting (AGM) and notify everyone of the activities over the last year and give them a written report on the various aspects ot the P.E.P.A. operations. Try to attend, as we need to obtain a quorum by Spanish law to be able to live up to the government obligations. This year we have had to delay the AGM until the 30th of March. This is to allow board members who were otherwise on holiday to attend. So mark your calendars that the AGM will be on Tuesday, 30th of March at the L’Irlandes restaurant starting at 12pm and will be followed by lunch at 1:45pm. All members let us know by email or telephone if you will be attending the meeting and also everyone that is attending the luncheon should call me at 96 280 8332 by Friday 26th of March so I can notify the restaurant. Something new in the events on Friday the 26th of March, there is an auction and booksale to be held at the Hotel La Falconera in Marxuquera. This is a beautiful hotel in a wonderful setting not far from the Ermita area of Marxuquera. You can look at their facility on their website of www.lafalconera.com Be sure to mark your calendars as the hotel and the gardens are very interesting. There is more information available on the attached event list giving information on how to list any item you may have for auction. There is one event previously listed and which has now been postponed – mainly due to the uncertain weather. That is the car treasure hunt. We hope to be able to hold this later on in the spring, so we will keep you posted.
P.E.P.A. January, 2010 Newsletter A Happy New Year to you All! During December, P.E.P.A. had its first luncheon at the La Cueva restaurant in Oliva, and it was a great success. As soon as our announcement was transmitted bookings poured in and we had to cut off further reservations. At this Christmas luncheon our raffle raised 185 euros and, in addition, six calendars were sold, raising the total for P.E.P.A. to 215 euros. This is the most money we have collected at any of our luncheons. There was roast turkey as well as roasts of beef and pork to select from plus all the traditional holiday veggies. We received many positive remarks on the food and service, so we are planning to schedule a Valentine’s lunch for Tuesday 9th February. Further details later. The book sale in Barx/LaDrova also collected the largest amount of money we have ever taken. Between the sale of books and calendars, plus a donation, a total of 201 euros was raised. I want to thank Joy Potter, Angela and Geoff Cherry for their hard work each month which bring in much needed money for P.E.P.A. The La Font bar in Barx is where these book sales are held and the bar has great sandwiches, pizzas and meals as well as the coffee and drinks. You will find a large crowd attending and having an enjoyable afternoon, so if you possibly can, please plan on attending the next one. With this being the first Newsletter of the New Year, I want to remind all members or prospective members it is time to renew your P.E.P.A. subscriptions, or to join. Members who joined during the last three months of 2009 are fully paid for this new year so can ignore contacting us. Please go to our website to see how to electronically transfer funds. The subscription rates are 12€ per year for one person, or 20€ for a couple. Cheques may be mailed to the address in the footnote of this newsletter. It is very important that we have your participation as members in order to give us credibility with the various Spanish governmental departments. Also, the more residents we represent the more attention Ayuntamientos give us. Upcoming events for P.E.P.A. are: This Tuesday 12th Jan, P.E.P.A. monthly luncheon @ L’Irlandes rte. in Castello de Rugat, meet at 1:30pm for 1:45 sit down. Call 96 280 8332 for reservations. This Wednesday jhe 13th Jan there is a book sale in Barx at the La Font bar/rte in the main plaza from 2pm-4pm Every first Thursday of the month there is coffee, cake and book sale between 2pm-4pm.at the Urb San Cristobal near Alberic. See the P.E.P.A. website; www.pepaspain.com Every Wednesday from 10am –12pm cake and book sale at Pizzeria Celtica in Novetle plaza (near Xativa). Every Saturday from 10am-2pm rastro in Novetle plaza (near Xativa). Dates for the following events will be announced shortly: Wine Tasting and Car Treasure Hunt. NOTICE: The P.E.P.A. Charity Shop is having a sale starting Tuesday, 12.01.2010. Prices have been slashed so that we have a large turnover of goods. Immediately after the As always we need volunteers for the helpdesk, foster caring and events. Is there anyone out there who would be able to organise a coffee morning, or, perhaps a spring marathon with dogs (marathons always seem to collect a lot of money!), or maybe, a fitness marathon on the beach with a barbecue! And, you golfers out there! How about competing for our P.E.P.A. cup? Please call 96 280 8332, if you have some free time to donate and either Janet or myself will be very happy to discuss your ideas.
Joe Goodwin
P.E.P.A. December, 2009 Newsletter VERY IMPORTANT NEWS! (Sorry to be so late in giving it, but we have been trying to find a smashing suitable restaurant who will give us an English Christmas lunch. Unfortunately one we liked took much longer to find than we meant it to!) The P.E.P.A. Christmas luncheon will be held on Tuesday, 15, December, 2009 at the La Cueva restaurant in Oliva. The attached menu will give you the full details on the traditional English Christmas meal. Please call 962808332 for reservations. You will have to book early as we have to give the restaurant time for ordering, decorating, etc. i.e. by Saturday, 12th. So do not be disappointed if we fill up if you call too late!! You can get a map for directions by clicking here to open a map in another window. There is parking in a lot across the Paseo just a block away from the restaurant. We will meet at 1:30pm for a 2pm luncheon. After looking at the menu I am sure you will recognise a real bargain. Several of us tried this restaurant on Sunday and had a great meal and the atmosphere was very Christmassy! Pat has created a smashing hamper for the raffle. During the month of November we would like to congratulate all the volunteers at the charity shop and especially to Jan White for the take of over 800 euros. Don’t forget to call us if you have goods for the charity shop. If you need directions to the shop see the map on the P.E.P.A. website; www.pepaspain.com Joy Potter, should also be congratulated for her efforts in collecting a lot of funds for P.E.P.A. with the book sales at Novetle, Barx, Urb. San Cristobal outside Alberic and now at the new venue in Villalonga at the Copia restaurant. This last week at the Barx location the take was 201 euros thanks to Joy plus Angela and Geoff Cherry. If you haven’t been to the La Font Bar in Barx for the book sales you are missing a pleasant afternoon picking out books enjoying a drink and meeting a lot of nice people. Watch for upcoming events in the New Year, such as a treasure hunt, and a wine tasting. Have a wonderful holiday season and hope to see you at the Christmas lunch. Joe Goodwin
November 2009, Unfortunately, P.E.P.A. missed the Bonfire Night at the Benicolet Aerodrome on November 5th, due to high winds, cold weather and ill volunteers. We were extremely sorry to have let Abby down and only hope we shall be able to have better luck in the future. Other events comming up are
OCTOBER, 2009Please note that the P.E.P.A. email address has changed to p.e.p.a.animalcharity@gmail.com . We have been losing too many messages at the old address and have given up on it. On the 26th of September the P.E.P.A. Fun Day was held at Benicolet aerodrome. The weather was rainy all week and everyone was worried that once again we would have to postpone, but luckily we got decent weather that Saturday. The volunteers, Protectapet Insurance team, Microlight Flight crews and planes, plus the new addition of the Costa Blanca Party Bus all did an outstanding performance. Everyone, I talked to is still raving about the food that the bus served, and I agree. It was great!Like always there were a lot of dogs in the show Protectapet sponsored and the proud winners got their ribbons. It was great to see a lot of the P.E.P.A. dogs with their loving, proud owners. These wonderful people have saved these animals lives and given them such loving and care. P.E.P.A. cleared 1500 euros and we thank all those who contributed. As you probably know this is our biggest fundraiser of the year and in today’s rough financial environment we know how difficult it is to help us. On September 8th the PEPA monthly luncheon at the L’Irlandes restaurant in Castello de Rugat raised 95 euros with the monthly raffle. Thank you to all the prize contributors and the diners for supporting us.We are now selling our 2010 P.E.P.A. calendars for 5 euros a calendar and we would very much appreciate your support in purchasing them. In similar style to last year, each month contains a photo of a dog or cat either enjoying life again or, perhaps, for the first time thanks to those people who adopted them through P.E.P.A. These calendars make a nice small gift for the upcoming holidays and New Year so we are hoping that you will buy many of them. They are on sale at the PEPA charity shop, C/Cervantes 26, in La Font d’en Carrós (see the website for a map www.pepaspain.com ), plus at all our activities like book sales, luncheons, etc.Please see the other attachment to this newsletter concerning our next event which is on Bonfire Night, the 5th of November at the Benicolet aerodrome, with great food, drinks, bonfire and fireworks, party games, raffles and mulled wine. The cost for the evenings entertainment is 11 euros, which means that PEPA will collect 1 euro from everyone who comes. Thanks for Abbey and her friends up at Benicolet it should be a lot of fun!Other upcoming things are:Our monthly luncheon will be on Tuesday, October 13 at the L’Irlandes, restaurant in Castello de Rugat. We meet in the bar area about 1:30pm for a 1:45 lunch start. The cost is 9 euros, includes salad, choice of first and second dishes, dessert, coffee and half bottle of wine. We hold a raffle to raise some money for P.E.P.A. also. Please call 96 280 8332 for reservations by Saturday, October 10 I have to let them know how many will be coming a little sooner this month with the 9th and 12th being holidays.Every Wednesday between 10am-12 noon at the Pizzeria Celtica at the Novetle Village Square there is a PEPA - cakes and book sales. English food is on sale with weekly orders taken for anything you miss from England, plus the services of a nail beautician. So drop by and have a good time.Also, on the first Thursday every month between 2.00 and 4.00 p.m., PEPA will have coffee and cakes at the book sale at C/Garbi 136, Urb San Cristobal Alberic near Alzira.On Wednesday the 28th of October once again at the Font bar/restaurant in Barx there will be a book sale from 2.00-4.00 pm. The last sale brought in a magnificent 131 euros for PEPA. Many thanks to all those very friendly people who participated! Also the bar has very good pizzas!As always PEPA needs your co-operation in gifts for raffles, tómbolas, plus, of course, any goods you may have for our charity shop in La Font d’en Carrós. Please help! The volunteers give so much of their time and effort and it is very rewarding when they have nice things for prizes or for sale. Now that it is holiday time we are in special need of nice gifts from individuals and sponsorships from businesses. So we are keeping our fingers crossed. Hope most of you enjoyed the activities in Gandia’s local fiesta; the feast of San Francisco Borja. The next holiday will be the Valencian holiday of the Reconquest of the City of Valencia which will be celebrated on the 9th of October, followed by the Spanish National Holiday on the 12th of October which is the fiesta de la Hispanidad (called Columbus day in USA). Have fun and we hope to see you at one of the upcoming events. Stay healthy! Joe Goodwin President, P.E.P.A.
September, 200930 August, 2009 Here we are in September and celebrating the first anniversary of our Charity Shop! Opening a shop meant that P.E.P.A. was making its first financial commitment of paying a monthly rent. At the time, a daunting experience! For, although the fixed monthly cost of the shop only came to 400 euros, we had a lot of apprehension about the possibility of losing money by not having enough support from the public. However, I am very happy to say that these fears were unfounded, and to date, we have never had a month when we did not make a profit. In fact the profit after all expenses, i.e. monthly rental, rates, fixtures and fittings for our first year of operation is 5,750 euros. A very big thank you goes to Jan White for managing the shop and to the thirty two volunteers who ensure we always have a minimum of two people on duty. These profits are a lifeline for P.E.P.A., especially now in the present environment when everyone’s income has been reduced. So now, about to enter our second year of operation, we would like to ask for your continuing support, by donating goods for sale, purchasing items from the store, and/or volunteering to work a shift, either on one day each week or as a ‘fill-in’. From my own experience I can tell you that helping in the shop is fun and very rewarding knowing you are such a large help to P.E.P.A.’s success.Another story of P.E.P.A’s continuing success has been Joy Potter’s ability to find various locales to hold book sales, rastro’s, etc. While we have lost different places due to change of management or going out of business, Joy has added new locales and has brought and continuing to bring in a lot of our working capital. At present the Pizzeria Celtica in Novetle (just outside of Xativa) allows us to hold a rastro every Saturday from 10:00-14:00 and a booksale every Wednesday from 10:00-14:00. Please drop in and meet Lee and John the owners. They are open Tue-Fri 9-15 and 20 till late, Saturdays 10 till late and Sunday 14-20. Closed Mondays. Weekdays traditional all day breakfasts are served & menu del dia, plus tapas. When you are there look at the various things that take place each week, the variety will astound you. Just a sample are Spanish lessons, quizzes, camp bingo, dance lessons, poker school and of course the Sunday roast.This month Joy will again have a book sale in Barx/ LaDrova where the locale is the Bar/Rte La Font in the Barx main square. This book sale is on Wednesday, 16th September from 14:00-16:00. Here there is always a nice crowd enjoying coffee, drinks and food while browsing the books and having a good time with the old and new friends. Hope to see many of you there. Urb. San Cristobal just outside Alberic will be having refreshments and a book sale on Thursday the 3rd of September from 14.00-16.00. If you wish, whilst looking at the books, and partaking of the refreshments you can take advantage of having a your hair dressed, for a very reasonable price, by the highly experienced hairdresser. The monthly luncheon on the second Tuesday of the month occurs on the 8th of September at the L’Irlandes restaurant in Castello de Rugat. We should be having a pretty good turnout this month as a lot people will be back from their holidays. Please call 96 280 8332 for reservations by Sunday, 6th of September. Thanks and hope to see you there. Lastly, let me remind you that on Saturday the 26th September we are having our Fun Day. See the attachment for details. As always, I am sure it will be a lot of fun, so please write the date down in your diary and be sure to come along. If you are able to help, please call Pat on 96 283 3325. The animal charity work is very busy. We continue to try to be of service to the increasingly large number of British people who are leaving Spain by advertising their dogs and cats for adoption. In order to prevent the obvious distress to both your animals and to yourself, by having to re-home them, please keep your animals supplied with an up to date animal passport, especially if you are going to move to an island location, i.e. UK, Ireland, Channel Islands, Malta, etc. This is so important as you never know when you might have to move and to obtain all the ncessary papers takes six months. Some people have had their animals with them for a very long time and find it heartbreaking having to make a separation because they had done nothing about a passport. Most moves right now involve finances, but, family llness, needing to take care of the grandkids, plus a lot of other reasons we hear about, demand that people move, so please be prepared.The P.E.P.A. feral cat sterilisation programme continues to do a wonderful community service, very much thanks to Pat Taylor who has been doing sterling work in this direction. (Incidentally Pat has now passed this programme over to myself so that she can devote her time handling our publicity and doing a stint on the Help Desk each week.) This year, up to two weeks ago, we have paid for 110 operations. Hopefully, people located in the areas where we give our support will impress upon their local Ayuntamiento the importance of giving financial help in order to keep down the numbers of feral cats in urban areas. As far as we are aware the only Ayntamiento in the province of Valencia, offering financial assistance in connection with sterilisations is the city of Gandia.They have a budget for paying local vets who perform sterilisations on female feral cats. It is very important to spread the word! If every town and village held a similar budget, the problem of inhumane treatment to feral cats would eventually disappear. It is also important not to make pets of these cats by feeding them yourselves. Please remember, sterilisation is the only humane way of eliminating the feral cat colonies. After reading several articles vis a vis charity finances, I would like to ensure all members of P.E.P.A. that they are welcome to inspect P.E.P.A.’s finances at any time of the year. Also, if you would like me publish some portion of the details please let me know (962808332) and I will ask our treasurer, Sean Hall-Smith, to supply the information. Of course, a detailed report is distributed at the AGM.Some changes in personnel assignments have been made: as mentioned above, Pat Taylor, has asked to be re-assigned to the Publicity for P.E.P.A. Incidentally, she has been doing publicity for the past few weeks following Debbie MacDonald’s departure from Spain. So, Pat is in charge of Publicity, with Feral Cat sterilisation covered by myself.This means that I will be vacating the P.E.P.A. Help Desk and so it is urgent to receive more support in this direction. Please telephone Katy Clark on 96 556 7376 if you can possibly help. It is not an arduous task! All that is needed is a very friendly attitude in dealing with queries and doing the best you can to re-home the dogs and/or cats who are in the care of our foster carers. Another aspect of the job is to put people, who are not in our area, in touch with other animal charities in the hope that they can help. Help Days are allocated to each helper, usually for one day a week. You need a mobile telephone, plus the Internet. You don’t have to stay in and be tied to the telephone. As you would have a mobile (paid for by P.E.P.A.) you can take a call whilst you are out and return to it to deal with in depth later at your convenience. Again, having had some experience on the Help Desk, I can tell you it is a very rewarding occupation. In a very short time you can do so much to help an unfortunate animal. Finally, Ken Barker, has volunteered to maintain our website which he has now fully updated. We are receiving a lot of compliments about the site, so please have a look at on www.pepaspain.com. Ken receives our thanks for jumping in and doing such a great job.
Joe Goodwin August, 2009 P.E.P.A. Newsletter First, the events we have coming up this month: On Wednesday, 5th August there will be a coffee morning from 10am-noon at the Pizzeria Celtica, The Square, Novetlé. Coffee, drinks, books, raffle. Don’t miss it. Book Sale in the main square in Barx. It will be held Wednesday, 5th of August from 2pm-4pm in the LaFont bar/rte. For this event there is always a nice crowd of people from La Drova, Marxuquera plus nearby places, going through the books at very low prices and enjoying drinks and snacks. The pizzas and sandwiches seem to be the favourites! Please join the group and help raise some funds for P.E.P.A. Very close to Xativa is an area called Novetlé. On Saturdays Joy Potter runs a rastro sale for PEPA in the square from 10am-2pm. Come and browse through the bargains. See an attachment to this newsletter for a map of the square. There will not be a monthly luncheon this month. Too hot, and too many of our supporters are travelling. We will pick up again on the second Tuesday in September. The PEPA Fun Day is to be held on Saturday, 26th of September at the Benicolet aerodrome. This event has been planned thoroughly and response to our plea for help has been good. But, we do still need volunteers! Volunteers are required to help set-up up stalls, plus clearing-up after the event. Please volunteer and call Pat Taylor on 96 283 3325. Attached is a poster in Spanish and in English concerning the Fun Day. We would be most grateful if you would kindly print them and post them up in your area. Pat Taylor, a member of the PEPA board of directors and the person in charge of the feral cat sterilisation programme, has asked to have a new assignment within PEPA i.e. take care of PEPA’s publicity. She has been doing an admirable job with the publicity since the departure of Debbie MacDonald, and it would be ideal for her to continue. However, doing publicity as well as the cat sterilization programme would obviously be too much. So a volunteer for the cat sterilization programme is urgently needed. We know there are many of you who love cats, have a computer and are good on the telephone. The work is not difficult – all you need is time to take telephone calls, answering ‘cat’ queries, plus organising for people to take the feral cats to the vets for their sterilization and to keep good spread sheet records on the computer of work performed and an inventory of PEPA owned equipment which is used by the public. Pat will give all the help and information you would require. You would also require ADSL internet access. If you would like to help with this very worthwhile work, please call Pat on 96 283 3325. Our financial position is as follows: as at the middle of July we have 1500 euros in the bank after paying all or our current expenses. As mentioned before, the PEPA charity shop in La Font den Carros is making a profit every month and provides a large portion of our money. We very much appreciate your continuing support in supplying materials for sale and as customers. Please remember the heat we are experiencing is very dangerous to dogs. I have added some material in an attachment to explain the dangers involved. Joe Goodwin
P.E.P.A. July, Newsletter
The luncheon went well in June. We were at the L'Irlandes restaurant, but this time we ate out on the veranda, which was suggested by Len Winbolt. It was comfortable, shady, and cool We made 110 euros from 19 attendees on the raffle. It was really a fun crowd!
June, 2009 P.E.P.A., NEWSLETTER Fund raising is difficult this year with the financial recession, but at the last luncheon P.E.P.A. collected 90 euros on the raffle from the 25 attendees, and we want to thank those wonderful people who donate prizes for us to raffle and to those who buy the raffle tickets. The next luncheon is on Tuesday, 9 June at the L’Irlandes restaurant in Castello de Rugat. Please call 96 280 8332 for reservations by Sunday, 7 June. On Saturday, September 26, the annual P.E.P.A. Fun Day will be held again at the aerodrome at Benicolet. Please contact Pat at 96 283 3325 or Janet at 96 280 8332 as they need volunteers. This is our major fund raiser of the year and we need your help. Other sections of P.E.P.A. needing volunteers or assistance are; Charity shop storage space, needs some where to store out of season bags of clothing. Our publicity chief, Debbie MacDonald will be re-locating to Canada in a few weeks and we need a replacement to write and place stories and adverts in the English language magazines and newspapers. We have people to help train you on this. If any of you want to volunteer to hold a morning coffee or afternoon tea with a raffle for P:E:P:A. please let us know for this or any of the above volunteer jobs by calling 96 280 8332. Stay cool, healthy and have fun. Hope to see you at the monthly luncheon. Joe Goodwin
P.E.P.A. May, 2009, Newsletter The charity has been fortunate to obtain a replacement volunteer for the help desk this month. Helen Whitfield who lives near Alberic is now covering one day per week for P.E.P.A. If any of you would like to join, working from home on the help desk or working in the P.E.P.A. charity shop, please call 96 280 8332. In April we had a very small group at the monthly luncheon, which is held on the second Tuesday of each month and is located at the L’Irlandes restaurant in Castello de Rugat. But in spite of the small crowd of 17 supporters, P.E.P.A. collected 70 euros on the raffle. The monthly luncheon allows us to get together and talk to P.E.P.A. supporters and let them know how we are doing. Try to make it to the next luncheon which is on next Tuesday, 12th of May, meet at the bar at 1:30pm for a lunch at 1:45. The cost is 9 euros which l goes to the restaurant. We try to have a raffle with donated gifts to raise some money for the P.E.P.A. expenses. Call 96 280 8332 for reservations by Sunday, 10th of May as I have to provide the restaurant with an accurate head count. If you can provide a gift for the raffle we would appreciate it also. The Tossal Gros restaurant, which is in the Urbanisation of the same name, located between Oliva and La Font d’en Carros ran a raffle for us on Easter. They supplied the prize and gave all the proceeds to P.E.P.A.. A very generous and appreciated task and we thank them. Our Charity shop in La Font d’en Carros turned in a profit over 200 euros during April. This is below the average amount which is 450 euros profit, but was probably due to being closed on some days for holidays and also we are near the end of the sales of colder weather clothing. Please remember to donate your re-saleable goods to us and thereby help the animals. Some people have had trouble finding the shop, if you use www.mappy.es you will find us when you provide the address, which is c/Cervantes 26, La Font d’en Carros, 46717. Next Wednesday, 13th of May, from 2pm to 4pm there will be a P.E.P.A. book sale at Barx in the main square at the Bar/restaurant La Font. Please come and purchase some books, and bring any books you want to recycle. This has been a very good locale for P.E.P.A. each time they hold a sale P.E.P.A. makes over a 100 euros. SPAMA, the animal charity that runs the animal refuge in Gandia, is having a rastro on Saturday the 16th of May, in the parking area of the Viva España on the N-322 just north of Oliva from 11am-2pm. SPAMA will also have a lunch after the rastro for 12 euros. Call 96 281 3226 by Wednesday the 13th of May. Please support this very worthwhile animal charity.
Joe Goodwin P.E.P.A. April Newsletter In March we held the AGM and elected the proposed candidates for president and board members. If you did not attend or pick up a handout at the La Font Charity Shop you can contact me and I will get you one. The luncheon this month will be on the normal second Tuesday of the month, which is the 14th of April. Meet in the bar of the L’Irlandes restaurant in Castello de Rugat at 1:30pm for a 1:45pm luncheon. If you have any prizes you can donate for a raffle or tombola, please bring them along. Some of the upcoming events for P.E.P.A are: Book sale in Barx near LaDrova at the La Font bar from 2-4pm. Joy Potter, Angela Cherry ran a great sale and made 126 euros for P.E.P.A. Great work! Thanks to the both of you! On Wednesday the 8th of April another book sale will be held from 3:30-5pm at the Monte Corona Restaurant in the Monte Corona Urb. Which is on the road between Villalonga and Ador/Palma de Gandia. Bring any books you want to donate to P.E.P.A. and they will be recycled. On Wednesday, April 22nd there will be a book sale from 2-4pm at Calla Garbi 136, in the Urbanization San Cristobal in Alberic. Hope to see you there. The restaurant at the top of the hill in Tossal Gros is running an Easter raffle for P.E.P.A. This urbanización is on the road between Oliva and La Font d’en Carros. If you go there please buy some tickets for the raffle, all of the money goes to P.E.P.A. How about getting involved in volunteer work with P.E.P.A.? Some of our great volunteers take a break for holidays and we can use volunteers to fill in for them.
The Charity Shop in La Font d’en Carros is doing well and made a profit of 540 euros during the month. Thanks to Rose Cox, Jan White who manage the shop and to all the volunteers who staff it and to the good people who donate items and those who purchase them. Keep up the good work! If you would like to run a coffee morning for the charity please contact Joe Goodwin, 962808332 and we will help with gifts for a raffle to raise some money. We would like to see more people get to know the objectives of P.E.P.A. and hopefully support us. 2nd March, 2009 On Tuesday, 10th of March, P.E.P.A. will hold its Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the L’Irlandes restaurant in Castello de Rugat. At the meeting we will give an overview of the state of the organisation of P.E.P.A. plus, there will be detailed handouts on each portion available to interested parties. There will then be a vote for President and the Board of Directors. As it is the requirement of the Spanish Government that we have a quorum of members attending the meeting we would ask that all members should try to attend. Following the meeting, the monthly luncheon will be held starting at 1:45pm. Please call me at 96 280 8332 and let me know if you will be attending the AGM and/or the luncheon. If you wish you may just attend the meeting. I would appreciate getting notified not later than Saturday, March 7. Activities with animal re-homing and feral cat sterilisations is continuing. As always, we give our first priority financially to supporting abandoned animals, using the remainder of available funds, over and above the reserve fund, for our sterilisation programme. It is extremely important to hold a reserve fund, which is set at a level of 2,000 euro. However, fortunately, at this particular time, we have reserves of 3,500 euros, so we are able to increase the number of sterilisations. Sadly, in these uncertain times financially, with sterling losing its value when converted to euros, we are finding the level of donations to P.E.P.A. is on the decrease. We are, therefore, depending greatly on the continued success of the PEPA Charity Shop in La Font d’en Carrós. At the present time the average monthly profit of the charity shop is approximately 550 euros, so in order to maintain this and, hopefully, to increase it, we need your continued support. We continually need new items for resale, especially clothes, so please donate and support our cause by purchasing items from the shop. If you have problems locating the shop just see the PEPA website www.pepaspain.com or, call me at 96 280 8332 for directions. The shop is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10am-1pm, plus Friday afternoons from 5pm-7pm. You can also pick up your free copies of Euro Weekly and Round Town News. Our thanks go to Jan White and Rose Cox, joint managers of the shop, for their tremendous efforts in transforming the layout of the shop and to all our shop volunteers for their enthusiasm and hard work. We would also like to thank everyone who supported the last two book sales for PEPA. The sale held in La Drova during February brought in 107 euros and the second book sale, which was held in Monte Corona, brought in a further 80 euros. Special thanks go to Joy Potter, Angela Cherry for their work and to Ana Palethorpe for arranging the venue for us in La Drova. We would also like to thank all our Help Desk Team and Debbie, who does an excellent job with our publicity. As the weather gets warmer it will be the time for the Processionary Caterpilars to start their journeys. If you are not familiar with this potential danger, please read the article in the website www.pepaspain.com. Whilst on line, please read the article on registering potentially dangerous animals and pass the word on to your friends and neighbours. It would be depressing to have a neighbour or friend suffer huge financial losses and possible criminal record if there was an accident and they had not obeyed the laws through ignorance. Anyone wishing to volunteer for helping us in our work should contact us at pepaspain@yahoo.co.uk or 96 280 8332. Right now we are enjoying the large numbers of volunteers we have, but we always can use back up and fill a few empty slots. For a small membership charity we have a large ratio of people donating their time to us. We thank them all and enjoy the companionship of such hard working generous people doing their civic duty in their adopted land. Look forward to seeing you at the AGM and monthly luncheon. Joe Goodwin 3rd February, 2009 P.E.P.A. has been fortunate to have so many volunteers for our charity shop in La Font. Due to this, we are able to extend our opening days to include Tuesdays. So now the shop is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10:00-13:00 plus Friday afternoons from 17:00-19:00. We hope you will continue to call us whenever you have goods for the shop. During December and January we have sold a lot of the stock, so we are always needing fresh items, especially clothing. From the time the shop opened in September the total profit for P.E.P.A. has been over 2900 euros! This source of income could not have come at a better time as the average donations for adopted animals has fallen, together with the number of animals cared for and adopted. The latter mainly because of the scarcity of foster carers and the fact that very often a foster carer will adopt the dog in her/his care. So, until the financial situation improves the shop will continue to be the most important source of funds available to support P.E.P.A.’s operations. Thank you for your material contributions to the shop and your support as customers. Please invite your neighbours and friends to help us in both these areas. Feral Cats Once more the season is upon us for sterilizing and castrating feral cats. This year we seem to be busier than ever thanks for the sterling effort of organisation by Pat Taylor. Upcoming events Our monthly luncheon will be on Tuesday the 10th of February at the L’Irlandes restaurant in Castell de Rugat. It is 9 euros for the meal. Please call 96 280 8332 for reservations. We have been lax in giving the restaurant accurate numbers of attendees, so please help us improve our reputation with the restaurant and call me by this coming weekend. In March we will have the monthly luncheon on Tuesday March 10th, and we will precede the luncheon with the Annual General Meeting. Two things we need urgently are: for those who have not done so, to pay their annual subscriptions of 12 euros per person and, as we are required by Spanish law to have a quorum of our membership at the meeting, we would be most grateful if you could spare the time to attend. It is not compulsory for you to stay on for the lunch, so please, if you are able, plan on being there. We will send out the agenda and time of the meeting soon. Change of mailing address The mailing address for P.E.P.A. has changed, so please make a record of it in case you have to send us mailings in the future: J. Goodwin, Cami les Bases 73, Marxuquera, Palma de Gandia, 46724, (Valencia), España. Joe Goodwin THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!January 2009 I hope everyone has had a happy and healthy holiday season. The only big celebration left is the Three King’s Day tomorrow! I’m sure you all will get nice presents! Despite stock market losses, the diminishing euros due to the exchange rate of British pounds sterling and the low, low interest rates on savings accounts that our supporters have had to deal with over the last year, P.E.P.A. has had a very decent financial year with good prospects for 2009. Most of this success lies with the opening of the Charity Shop in September. The success of the shop is due: to a wonderful group of volunteers, lots of P.E.P.A. supporters who donate saleable goods, and luckily, a customer base who keep coming in and buying items. Please keep helping us by supporting the shop in La Font d’en Carros. If you need directions see the map on our website www.pepaspain.com. The P.E.P.A. membership dues should be paid this month. You can hand the money in to one of the board members at the monthly luncheon, or send them to P.E.P.A., Apartado 298, 46700, Gandia (Valencia), España. The dues are 12 euros per year. This is the same as it has been since we started in October 2005. The board has discussed the membership amount over the years, but the consensus has been to keep the rates low, as we look at them to be an indication of commitment to the objectives of P.E.P.A. rather than a large portion of our funds. Hope you all renew your memberships! The monthly luncheon will be on the second Tuesday as normal. This month that will be on Tuesday, 13, January. We will meet in the bar area of the L’Irlandes restaurant in Castello de Rugat at 1:30pm for lunch at 1.45pm. Please call 862808332 for reservations and directions, if needed, by Saturday, 10th of January. By the way, in some of the previous years the restaurant raised the price of the meal, but not this year. It still is 9 euros for salad, selection of the first and second courses, dessert, half bottle of wine per person, water and coffee. Joe Goodwin 2008 2nd December 2008 The December P.E.P:A. luncheon will be on Tuesday, December 9th, at the restaurant L’Irlandes, in Castello de Rugat. For reservations and directions call, 96 280 8332 by Friday,December, 3rd . The book sale on Wednesday, in La Drova has been postponed. We will send out a notice when the location and date is finalized. The sales at the P.E.P.A. Charity Shop, in La Font d’en Carrós, continues to be good. We are netting approximately 600 euros each month of the first three months in operation. Be sure and call us (062808332) when you have donations. If you haven’t visited yet you can find a map on the PEPA website>; www.pepaspain.com . We thank the volunteers who work in the sales and the personnel who sort, price and display the donated articles. Our feral cat sterilization programme keeps helping several areas with their feral cat over-population problem. Pat Taylor is the contact for help if you have problems in your area (962933325). Hope you all have a very happy, healthy holiday season. ---------------------------------------------------------- P.E.P.A. DECEMBER NEWSLETTER Supplement 1 In the December P.E.P.A. Newsletter issued yesterday, there were a couple of items which were not available at that time. But, we had to issue the Newsletter as we had previously scheduled a Book Sale in La Drova and we had to notify people that it had been postponed to a date to be decided. Now we have that information. Sorry for the inconvenience. The La Drova book sale for P.E.P.A. has been scheduled for Wednesday, December 10th at the El Romeral restaurant in La Drova. The El Romeral is being re-opened under a new owner-management group and they will be notifying people of their hours, menu and events shortly. In the mean time P.E.P.A. has been authorized to use their facilities for their book sale and the bar will be open to sell coffee, tea and drinks for your convenience. There will be a lot of books to choose from and we hope we will see you there. P.E.P.A. has made a 2009 calendar in Spanish and English, with pictures of lots of cats and dogs. The calendar sales are a fund raiser for P.E.P.A. which will use the proceeds to pay for the expenses involved in the animal re-homing and the feral cat sterilization programmes. These calendars will be on sale at the P.E.P.A. Charity Shop in La Font (see our website www.pepaspain.com for a map, at the El Romeral restaurant during the book sale, and at the QuikSave stores in Oliva and Pedruguer, the P.E.P.A. stalls in the rastros at Valles and Cabrera. In addition they will be on sale at the P.E.P.A. monthly luncheon on December 9th at the L’Irlandes restaurant in Castello de Rugat. You can call Joe at 962808332 to purchase these calendars. Don’t forget they would make nice gifts for your families and friends. Joe Goodwin 1st November 2008 First of all, remember that the monthly luncheon will be held as usual on the second Tuesday of the month; Tuesday, November, 11 at the restaurant L’Irlandes, in Castello de Rugat. Meet in the bar at 1:30pm for a 1:45pm lunch. For reservations and directions call, 96 280 8332 by Friday, November, 8th. Royal British Legion P.E.P.A. Charity Shop We want to thank all those who have contributed the many articles for re-sale. We continually require more items so please call any of the P.E.P.A. staff who run the shop or call 96 280 8332 to make arrangements for either delivery or collection. With the advent of autumn the heavier clothing is selling fast so any items of that nature that you have will be most welcome. Most of our sales have been to Spanish living in or near La Font d’en Carrós, but we hope more of you who live outside the La Font/Oliva area will drop by to see the bargains that are available. We also have the current Euro Weekly and Round Town News papers available. Look for the map on the P.E.P.A. website for the location of the Charity Shop, www.pepaspain.com La Drova Book Sale
Sociedad Protectora de Animales y Medio Ambiente (S.P.A.M.A.) S.P.A.M.A. is an animal charity located in La Safor, which includes the cities of Gandia, Oliva and Tavernes de Valldigna. Going inland it stretches to Terrateig. In the locale of LaSafor, S.P.A.M.A. have contracts with all of the major cities mentioned and many of the villages. These contracts make them responsible for the collection of abandoned animals and they must live up to the existing laws concerning their care. The huge difference between a city or village having S.P.A.M.A. for their animal care instead of a profit making organisation, is that profit making organisations are allowed to ‘put down’ the animals collected after a small time period (10-15 days approximately), whereas S.P.A.M.A. never ‘put down’ an animal unless it is to stop undue pain for the animal. Nowadays, with the added problems of the economic situation, more animals are being abandoned. Consequently, with the increasing difficulty in finding new homes the running costs for S.P.A.M.A. have also considerably increased. All the profits raised from this dinner/dance will be used to meet those increased costs. So if you wish to continue to see animal control handled in this immensely more humanitarian way, please support this fund raiser. Don’t forget P.E.P.A. is always looking for more volunteers; to provide more support for our programmes; we need, more foster carers, volunteers in the charity shop, people to staff telephones for the help line, etc. Please call Katy at 965567376, Pat at 962833325 or Joe at 962808332 for more info. Please support the book sales, charity shop and donate saleable items to P.E.P.A. Joe Goodwin 23rd September 2008 03/09/2008 After several months of work the P.E.P.A. Charity shop was opened in La Font d’en Carros. The hours are from 10am-1pm Wed/Thurs/Fri/Sat and on Fri evening from 5pm-7pm. You will find a map on our website: www.pepaspain.com . For the first two weeks of operation the shop’s revenue has provided 667 euros for P.E.P.A, and the group would like to thank Pat Taylor for the wonderful work she has done! Firstly, in finding the shop, and then in developing a volunteer base in order to staff it. Now, thanks to Pat, we have eighteen volunteers, and some delightful local residents showing their support by coming in to buy, we are all very confident that the shop will be a great success. So, well done, Pat! Incidentally, although we have plenty of stock to sell at the moment, please remember that, every time we make a sale, we need to replace it. So please do bear us in mind when you find clothes won’t fit you any more, or you are just tired of them! Or perhaps, when you are clearing out a few drawers and cupboards. If the items you have are in a good condition and are re-saleable, please give Pat a call on 96 283 3325, and she will organise a day for you to bring them to the shop. Remember, P.E.P.A. brings together people of many talents, and by working together we accomplish much more than when working independently! P.E.P.A. is an outstanding example of the synergy that a group working together can accomplish! At the monthly luncheon on September 9th we had a total of 31 people attending. The summer is over!! Thanks to all the wonderful people who contributed, the raffle raised 115 euros. Apart from the need of obtaining more goods for re-sale in our shop over the next few months, we need to obtain donated goods for resale in the P.E.P.A. stall in the Pool Bar near Barxeta, which is on the road from Xativa to Simat. If you have a donation, please call Joy at 96 258 9067. Other sources we would like to thank for funds are the Barxeta and Ontinyent groups who hold regular meat raffles, donating money raised to P.E.P.A. Plus a thank you to The Pool Bar at Barxeta who held a Country & Western night on August 30th, and allowed us to have a tombola which enabled us to raise 150 euros. A big thank you goes to Joy Potter for all her work in organising the tombola, plus Ginger Summerville for his help. Last spring Kathleen Hubers started the ball rolling by giving a coffee morning. Since then we have had several, plus a very successful jazz party and tea party. These events are not only very successful in raising funds for P.E.P.A., but lots of fun! So, if you are interested, or know someone who would be, in raising money from home, either by having a coffee morning, tea party, bring and buy sale or barbecue, as a way of raising money from your home, please call Kathleen at 96 280 2205, and she will help by telling you what you have to do. These events not only help to spread the word of P.E.P.A.’s obligations and intentions for better treatment of animals, but how this fits into the overall environmental issues of our adopted home, Spain. So, please help us by sponsoring a coffee morning or attending one! For the past two months we have been advertising the Animal Aid Foundation’s great need for funds in order to care for the abandoned animals in their care. To date P.E.P.A. has collected and turned over to the Foundation 2047 euros. We thank all those people who have contributed. Annelies Jacobs has informed us that hopefully the financial situation will soon be back in solvency. Once again her plans have had to be changed, as the sale of property in the present situation is not very good. She is, however, very happy that she now has the commitment of a property, which is available to her to use as a refuge, in Germany. It is near the border with Holland, very close to where she lived in her childhood. She, therefore, plans to drive 40 dogs each month to Germany and stay with them until they are re-homed. This will mean (apart from her husband having to stay behind to look after their refuge in Benifaio), after the dogs have been re-homed, she will have sufficient funds to run the refuge here in Spain. Her property in Benissa, where she had a refuge previously and which she still owns, has been re-zoned by the new political party administration who took over in May, 2008, which means the sale of that property should eventually provide more funds for her. Our next luncheon will be on Tuesday, 14th of October, just after all the various local fiestas. From the 1-5 of October Gandia has their fiestas around the San Francisco Borja holiday, followed on the 9th of October by all of the Communidad Valenciana celebrating the re-conquest of the city of Valencia from the Moors and finally the 12th of October is the Spanish national holiday for the Hispanidad or la raza, also it is the patrona de military, la Virgen de Pilar and as we gringos call it Columbus day. So relax and join us for lunch! We meet in the bar at 1:30pm and by 1:45 we are sitting down to lunch at the L’Irlandes restaurant in Castelo de Rugat which is found around kilometre 17 off ramp of the CV-60 motorway. Call 96 280 8332 for reservations. Please reserve by Friday 10th of October. Joe Goodwin |