Special Visitors Flew out from Pennsylvania to our national headquarters in California, with paint brushes in hand for the special purpose of creating a mural for Adoption Room B (which was never papered because of its whitewashed wood paneling). For 6 days, Joyce Kuhns and Susan Mason adorned the walls with images of rabbits romping and relaxing inside a typical home. This symbolizes our goal, permanent happy homes, for the live rabbits in the habitats underneath the mural It’s a gorgeous work.
HRS Growth
Since our founding in 1988, House Rabbit Society has grown from a single foster home in the San Francisco Bay Area to thirty-two chapters (with fostering & educational programs) in twenty states, with another eight dozen fosterers and educators throughout the United States , Canada and Australia . Just this year, we have welcomed new chapters in Alabama and Minnesota , which will allow us to help many more rabbits and people than we were able to do before.
While here at our national headquarters in Richmond , California , we handle the overall needs of the organization-producing the Journal, keeping national statistics, maintaining the website, taking care of finances, and keeping in touch with our members from around the world-as well as run our local shelter, most of the fostering and educational work of House Rabbit Society is handled “on the ground,” through our volunteer educators, fosterers and chapter managers around the world.
Without our chapters, educators and fosterers, House Rabbit Society would not be where we are today, and our total number of rabbits rescued would not this year have reached 10,000. If you’re not sure if you live in an area served by an HRS chapter, give us a call at 510.970.7575 or check our Web site (www.rabbit.org) to find the chapter nearest you. Most have their own Websites (linked through ours), and these are a great way to keep track of chapter activities around the country.
All membership fees and donations collected through the national office support our national activities; to support your local chapter‘s efforts, please give directly to your local chapter; like the national organization, all of our chapters are 501c3 non-profit organizations, and your donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law.
Renewal Notices
Many of you have asked us for renewal notices. While we’ve been gearing up to start this process, we’re not there yet, as it will take more volunteer time and funds that we are currently spending elsewhere. In the meantime, here are the ways that you can keep track of your expiration date so that your membership stays current.
Expiration dates are printed on the label on this Journal, so you can use this to remind yourself of when you need to renew. Expiration dates are also printed on membership cards that we send out when you send us a donation or membership.
You can always email us and we can look up your expiration date and membership history at any time. If we don’t have your email address in our records, please send it to us so that we can add it to the database; we do occasionally send out renewal notices via email. And finally, you can sign up on www.rabbit.org for HRS updates, including information on upcoming Journals, which will help to remind you to check your membership date. Thank you for continuing to care about the plight of rabbits, and for supporting our efforts.
Marinell Harriman
House Rabbit Journal Summer 2002: Volume IV, Number 7