I’d like to tell you a story about an amazing little girl called Penny.
This 6 year old has had a huge love for all animals since she was able to walk and talk. It began with her love of all dogs, but in particular her Nanny’s dog called Ted.
One day Penny asked her mum if there was a horse sanctuary that she could visit. After a bit of research her mum found Blue Acre and asked if they could come down to have a look and perhaps volunteer. Since then she has never looked back and now comes down every Sunday morning.
Penny has a huge love for Penny (the horse), one of Blue Acre’s rescued horses. Not only because they share the same name, but she has formed a huge bond with her and loves taking care of her. Through regular grooming and riding, they have built a relationship formed on trust and respect and therefore a wonderful friendship! Penny really missed Penny (the horse) and all the animals at Blue Acre during lockdown. Penny was also concerned of the wellbeing of the animals and who could take care of them but understood and saw by the Facebook page that whilst she couldn’t visit in lockdown, Caron and the other wonderful volunteers were still taking the same love and care for the animals as usual. When she returned to Blue Acre a few weeks ago she said it was “the best day of my life”!
Since Penny is only 6 she obviously can’t help out with manual labour at the sanctuary, however she realises that the centre relies on donations and help from volunteers and came up with an idea off of her own back that she wanted to raise some money to help support Penny (the horse) and all of the other rescues at the sanctuary by doing a sponsored scoot.
This challenge would see her ride her scooter from the War Horse Memorial statue on the roundabout outside Ascot Racecourse all the way to the Copper Horse statue at the top of the long walk in Windsor. She even wrote a letter to the Queen and the Prime Minister asking them to come!
On Sunday 2nd August 2020 at 10.30am she left the statue in Ascot and arrived at the Copper Horse in Windsor an hour and a half later.
On her arrival in Windsor with her dad running behind (she’s fast on that scooter!) Penny was met by Caron (founder of Blue Acre) who had also brought along Penny (the horse) to welcome her and cheer her on to the finish line.
Penny set a goal amount of £1000 for this challenge and upon completion she was already up to £1300 with donations still coming in.
She doesn’t know this yet but as soon as she is of working age I think she will be appointed the position of chief fundraiser for the charity due to her outstanding dedication and achievement!
She is such an inspirational young lady and I can’t wait to see what she does next.