ANZAC DAY

Rescue Element

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Our rescue mission is:

• To rescue veterans and abandoned pets. We do this using our connections in the first responder and military veteran community, the Parnell Returned Services Club, and the PAWS animal rescue centre. Both parties are at risk of death via suicide or euthanasia, respectively.

• Also by fostering a community with our cause, we are intending to reduce the barrier of entry to get the help people need and deserve.

• Having a dog has proven to help many veterans who are struggling, and we intend to keep that trend on the uptick by providing them with dogs in need of rescue, effectively saving two lives at a time.

Education Element

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Our agenda is:

• To help educate veterans on how to  foster positive mental change by breaking the stigma around mental health and providing veterans with resources and tools to support their rehabilitation.

• To educate them on how dogs can help their mental health

• To help educate dog owners on dog ownership, training and dog breeding and some of the determents to dog breeding and why it's preferable to rescue and foster dogs.

• To educate people on why it's important to rescue and foster dogs.

• ​Our dog training programmes were written by Katie Castello of the Canine Campus Training and Wellness Center, and are made to be easy to access and process. Katie Castello is a very well accomplished and experienced Registered Veterinary Technician with many accolades to her name.

Social (Community) Element

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• Intended to be hosted in less of a formal and learning environments, with the goal of being reintegrated by having fun, laughter among the community. These could be:

• Weekly quiz nights

• Monthly member get togethers

• Family & Dog fun events 

• Fun fundraising events

• Comedy night in or night out

• Family, Dog & Animal movie nights

• Fun Dog show events

• Fun Open Day for kids, rescue dogs and potential rescue owners to meet.

• Socialization and community is very important to combat feelings of isolation and loneliness. We intend to host many events, of both a social nature and a training environment, to help bring the community together and for people to be there for each other, because sometimes that's the best someone can do, and just what someone needs.

• It is also a way for people to see success stories, people that have successfully been rehabilitated coming and giving back to the community.

• Also serves as a place for dogs and dog owners to come together.

• The community element also helps spread awareness on issues the community is facing such as PTSD in (military and emergency) service veterans, and raising awareness for abandoned dogs and via community events like our very own annual Yellow Shield Day (April 9th) , Purple Poppy Day (February 24th) & World Mental Health Day (October 10th).

• With the help of the community on event days, merch sales, membership for our programs (all subsidized based on the level of funding we can receive). We can raise some funds to keep serving the community with our cause, to help us facilitate resources and tools to continue helping those in need.

Exercise & Training Element

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• To foster positive physical health, which ties into mental health and to promote greater community bonds ( shared adversity is a great catalyst and is all too familiar with veterans) we are running 2 weekly physical training sessions, and to those who can't make them, we intend to send out newsletters to their registered emails. 

• To add to this we would like to also implement what's called “the wanderers walk” a low impact kind of session on a weekend where everyone gets together and walk with their dogs or weighted packs (for fitness), to take a bit of a break from the more intense training sessions and to accommodate more people and their dogs.

• We also provide basic fitness programs to help people continue on their fitness journey or to maintain current levels of fitness

• We intend to run the weekend warriors quarterly. We have an extensive track record with running such events and have received very positive feedback. These are run by a former special forces operator, so you know you're getting the best experience you can get.

• We also provide training programs for rescued dogs, so as to make integration between pet and veteran smoother. These programs are provided by top of the line dog trainers.

• We do this via monthly workshops to help train dog owners and dogs. Our training programmes were written by Katie Castello of the Canine Campus Training and Wellness Center.