Chart to Benefit Southern Pines Animal Shelter: St. Stephen's Day

St. Stephen's Day has been celebrated in Ireland for hundreds of years and is one of the country's nine official holidays.  To this day, on December 26, merrymakers dress in old clothes and straw hats and go door-to-door with fake wrens to dance and make music.  These revelers are sometimes called "Mummers," which is how I got the inspiration for Mary's last name.

There is a wonderful song to celebrate St. Stephen's Day, and you can see an older recording of it  by The Clancy Brothers here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX7icoFY0U0.

I am making this graph available to you and am asking you to make a donation of any size to Southern Pines Animal Shelter by using your Paypal account.  Go to Paypal and send your donation to vrachal@comcast.net (Valerie is our grant writer and fund raiser extraordinaire!)  If you do not have a Paypal account, you can send a donation check directly to the shelter at 1901 N. 31st. Ave., Hattiesburg, MS 39401 (as always, I don't recommend you send cash in the mail.)  I am not requiring any particular donation, but can tell you that just $10 will feed two animals for a month.  Five dollars will buy us ten (very needed) rolls of paper towels for keeping things clean. If you're feeling extra generous, $30 pays for neuter surgery for one male cat or kitten.  Even just $2 will help us protect an animal from rabies with a vaccination.

To access this graph, you can click on the graphic below (the chart), and drag and drop it on your desktop. Then you can print it out for use; I have saved it for you 600 DPI as a jpg file.  The quality of the copy you print will depend on the capability of your printer.  If you don't have much luck printing this off, try asking a friend with a different printer to print it for you.

If THAT doesn't work, you can send me a SASE to Theresa Venette, 10 Plainview Crossing, Hattiesburg, MS 39402.

For fabric, I would choose something hand-dyed and old-looking.  I might suggest Vintage Exemplar by Lakeside Linens or Espresso by R&R Reproductions.  The key appears below the graph.

Symbol/DMC floss (over-dyed alternatives)

■ 3371 (Sampler Threads Cherry Bark)

= 831 (Sampler Threads Endive)

X 829 (Sampler Threads Heirloom Gold)

. 613 (Weeks Dye Works Light Khaki)

3 3826 (Sampler Threads Gingersnap)

w 3859 (Sampler Threads Raspberry Frost)

+ 3857 (Weeks Dye Works Rust

↑ 3031 (Sampler Threads Pecan Pie)

/// 3781 (Sampler Threads Maple Syrup)

A little bit about what we do at the shelter: Southern Pines was established in 1952 and last year accepted 5,000 unwanted, neglected, abused and lost dogs and cats from a 15-county area.  We are a non-profit organization that strives to reunite lost pets with their owners, educates the public about the importance of responsible pet ownership, adopts out thousands of animals a year, sends other animals on transports and to breed-specific rescue groups, assists with hoarding, neglect and abuse cases, offers pet food to those in need, and much, much more.  We operate a low-cost spay and neuter clinic that has done over 20,000 surgeries in the 3 1/2 years it has been open.  We also have opened a Thrift Store and Adoption Center to assist us in our mission.

Thank you for your help.  I hope you enjoy this design!