Hello mates! Reef the fox right here together with your weekly “Reef’s Report.” I’m honored to deliver you a really particular (and sure, skilled) report this week. At present, I get to share one thing near my coronary heart.
We’re thrilled to announce Pawsitive Beginnings has been awarded a grant from the Ocean Reef Group Basis. This funding is a direct funding in therapeutic — and particularly, in our animal-assisted remedy partnership with the Florida Keys Youngsters’s Shelter.
Let me paint an image for you. Since launching this partnership in 2023, greater than 300 kids and youths from the shelter have visited our sanctuary right here in Key Largo. They’ve hung out in our therapeutic den, and engaged in significant, therapeutic classes — all impressed by the tales of foxes like me that overcame unthinkable odds.
These younger individuals come from backgrounds of trauma, neglect or instability. But one thing lovely occurs once they meet us — animals who have been as soon as discarded, who now stay surrounded by compassion and care. By way of guided classes with their counselors, they study resilience by watching it firsthand.
Due to the assist of the Ocean Reef Group Basis, we’ll be capable to proceed providing this life-changing expertise for free of charge to the shelter. The grant will fund the whole lot from facilitator assist to therapeutic provides like artwork supplies, enrichment instruments (for us and the people) and journals.
A little bit bit concerning the beneficiant people behind the grant: The Ocean Reef Group Basis facilitates philanthropy from North Key Largo’s Ocean Reef Membership neighborhood. Since 1994, they’ve contributed greater than $150 million to nonprofit organizations, together with greater than $20.8 million to teams in Monroe and southern Miami-Dade counties. Their dedication to uplifting the very communities their members stay and work in is inspiring — and we’re so honored they noticed the worth in what we’re constructing right here.
This isn’t only a sanctuary. It’s a second probability — for foxes rescued from the fur commerce, and for youngsters who’re studying methods to reclaim their very own tales. And now, with this grant, our mission strikes ahead stronger than ever.
On behalf of all of us — myself, Kai, Jasper, Louie, Penny, Coral, Ridley and our founder (and mother) Nicole Navarro — thanks to the Ocean Reef Group Basis for believing in our work. Thanks to the kids’s shelter workers for trusting us together with your unbelievable children. And thanks to each youngster who has ever stepped by our gates and dared to imagine that possibly, simply possibly, they’re worthy of affection and therapeutic too.
To study extra concerning the Ocean Reef Group Basis you possibly can go to: oceanreefcommunityfoundation.org.