This past February we spent a couple of weeks volunteering at Safe Harbor Farm in Maysville, NC. Safe Harbor Farm (SHF, for short) is an animal sanctuary that once housed 75 cats, up to 40 dogs, 12 goats and over 10 birds. Now it consists of about a dozen cats, 6 dogs. 4 goats, 1 turkey vulture, 1 duck, lots of turtles and other assorted wildlife, some residents and some migratory.
As volunteer workampers, our agreement was to put in 16 hours per week, per person, completing a variety of projects, mostly outside work. This included projects like raking and clearing brush, mowing, repairing fences, and placing logs around the property pond for turtles to sunbath. We also helped during feeding time. For these effort, we received a full hook-up site on the property during the duration of our stay and the use of the laundry facility, free of charge.
On our days off, we ate at local restaurants and sampled the local fish. We spent time at the beach a mere thirty minute drive away and went on a little hike.
Currently, SHF is looking for volunteers to help keep the grounds maintained and tech savvy people to help with spreadsheets and social media. But, mostly, they would benefit from having a single or couple looking for a long term position for a year or more to help with organizing the local volunteers that help on a regular basis.
They organization doesn’t do quite the volume of physical rescue of dogs they use to though there are still plenty of pets on the property including turtles. They are listed as an official turtle sanctuary.
SHF has always been focused on dog behavior education in order to reduce the number of dogs returned to shelters around the country. You can help them remotely by purchasing their book Smile from there site.
The farm itself is deciding it’s next big thing, whether it be a dog-friendly nature center and park or any other number of options that continue to help pets. They just need the next person or people with drive to help get them there.
If someone is looking to help this organization long term, they not only have RV sites, but they also have an apartment above their low cost spay/neuter clinic on property. Any vets looking to run a small low cost spay/neuter clinic could probably find a place there, too.
If this is a volunteer workamping venture you are interested in, you can contact SHF through their contact/application page, here.
