Late last year we were approached by a solicitors firm asking us to provide a list of capital projects that would benefit the hedgehogs we rehabilitate at Hornbeam Wood Hedgehog Sanctuary. We compiled a list of many projects, some that would be hugely beneficial but due to lack of funds did not have the ability to start them.
Earlier this year we had a letter from the firm letting us know we were successful with our grant application and awarded a massive amount of £5,000.00! This is the most amount of money by far, we have ever received, and more than the total amount we received in previous years from donations. We were absolutely taken back by this grant and at the same time so excited about what we are now able to do to help the hedgehogs we rehabilitate at Hornbeam Wood Hedgehog Sanctuary!
There is a second bit of good news with this grant we can also become a registered Charity, which is amazing :D We already started this application a few months ago but unfortunately are still waiting for the process to be complete in order to gain our new registration number. I was going to wait for this communication until we received our registration number but due to the coronavirus things are not as quick to process as we would have liked. We have an accountant that is very kindly dealing with this on our behalf and hope to bring confirmation soon.
The grant is to be used on capital projects only, and we have already made a start on one of the projects. We will be using this money to build a brand new hedgehog hospital :D This is the biggest and most needed project for the hedgehogs we rehabilitate. We will then look at how much of the grant we have left and hopefully also build a mini hoglet hospital for one of our volunteers at their home who very kindly helps us with all the baby hedgehogs that we rescue from orphaned families. I am also hoping to get started on another project to create between 4-8 individual securely enclosed hedgehog gardens for a few of the permanently homed hedgehogs we have at Hornbeam Wood Hedgehog Sanctuary. These hedgehogs have disabilities such as being blind and cannot be released fully back in to the wild without being cared for on a long term basis. We will not have enough funds to complete the hedgehog gardens but I'm hoping to get a good start on it, then look to raise additional funds to complete the project.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their continued support and helping us to get to this amazing point. This is a wonderful thing for both the hedgehogs and the Charity and we are super excited about this news :D
