Have you looked at the web site? http://www.overthefence.com/helpberners/bg/
It's an "awesome" amount of berner items, some one of a kind, and besides you will be helping the breed through your donations. Berner-Garde and the Health Committee are working on establishing a DNA Bank and Tissue Repository, that will house both healthy and diseased DNA and affected tissues for Berners. It would include pedigree and medical history information, too, thus making it much more valuable to researchers. What a treasure that will be for future researchers to have available this material. It will be able to cut years off their research. I'm sure everyone will want to participate in this unique project, but before it becomes a reality, we must raise money to make it happen. There are still many details to be worked out, and many issues to resolve. And when it is finally implemented, there will be costs for storage and processing.
There are many creative ways to make your donations go a long way:
(1) We currently have a Challenge Donation - A generous, anonymous Berner person has donated tickets for the Entlebucher fundraiser to encourage donations for our Berner-Garde Fundraiser. The National Entlebucher Mountain Dog Association (NEMDA) is conducting a fundraiser to raise money to help with PRA research. The scientists and researchers at Michigan State University are making great progress with PRA, but they still need funds from the people who love this breed (Entlebuchers.) Through their efforts they hope to make a huge difference in the life and eye health of the Entlebucher. To see a photo of the lovely quilt, go to: http://bernese.biz/fundraiser.htm
The first 10 people to donate $50 or more to The Fifth Annual Berner-Garde Fundraiser will each get a bonus ticket to try to win that lovely quilt. Be sure to check it out!! It's a beautiful quilt, and if you ignore the tail issue, and squint just right, the dogs on the quilt look exactly like Berners! So far, no one has sent in $50 or more, so I still have 10 tickets for that lovely quilt.
(2) You can make a donation and honor people who do work for the breed or to friends and you can do it anonymously if you'd like. A generous, anonymous Berner person has made a donation and is giving part of the tickets as a "Thank You" to the following people: Roxanne Bortnick, for all of her work as the Berner-Garde Data Base Administrator; to Randy Karl, for all of his work on the Berner-Garde Data Base; to Lori Jodar, for all of her hard work as the Berner-Garde President; and to Mary Maliarik, for all of her work on - the Berner-Garde Study Coordination and the DNA Bank Proposal. See how easy it is to make other people happy and to help the breed at the same time!!!!!
(3) You can make a donation and use the ticktets to try to win things that you'd like to have.
"Any way that you cut it," when you make a donation to the Berner-Garde Fundraiser, you will not only help the present and future Berners, but you will 'feel good' at the same time.
Remember, for anyone who makes a donation of $20 or more, you get a lovely Berner Bookmark, while the supply lasts.
There are so many good reasons to make a donation to Berner-Garde by entering the "Name the Costco Berner Contest." All of the directions for entering are on the website:
http://www.overthefence.com/helpberners/bg/
I'll be looking forward to the "mountain of mail" that I am sure is on its way to me soon!!!!
Joye Neff and Nick (and Ben) Mt. Lebanon, Pittsburgh, PA
