Saturday the 3rd of July marked our 7th Annual Trivia Night and Silent Auction. The night was sold out well in advance and we regret that not everyone who wanted to come was able to be there on the night.

A very special thank you to all the contributors both big and small, though too long to list in this space, please check out the listing on our website. We really appreciate the great response we got and without their help the night would not have been possible.

As always the people who truly make this night an evening to remember are of course the attendees. Everybody there had a great night and dug deep for our great cause, with over $15,000 raised it was a very successful night all round.

Make sure that you don't miss out on joining us next year, you won't regret it.

As always there is never as dull moment at Animal Aid, just last weekend Jodie Limon, one of our Education officers, attended and presented at the South Pacific Humane Education Conference in Auckland, New Zealand.

This focus of this conferences was Delivering Animal Welfare Education for Diverse Cultures and featured guest speakers from all over the South Pacific region. Our presentation revolved around what we learned from the Black Saturday Bushfire disaster. It raised important issues such as the unprecedented response from the community in providing relief and assistance and the educational role that we can play in future bushfire and disaster planning, management and response.

Jodie relayed the level of thought and effort we have put in to preparing ourselves for any future event, with the development of our Emergency Response Team, backed up with the Rescue Vehicle, and response unit. All members of the response team have been given appropriate training in small and large animal handling and equipment familiarity. We have even made this important role official by signing a memorandum of understanding with the Yarra Ranges Council, to provide a collaborative, coordinated response for the residents of the Shire.

Friday the 23rd is the official launch of our long awaited Education Centre. This fantastic new resource is already more than proving its worth in so many ways. Puppy School starts up this week, we have run two Community Education seminars already and have more planned for the future, keep an eye on the Community Information Sessions page on our website for upcoming topics.

We have had a great run on getting our name in the media of late and we encourage you to check out the news section on our website to see some of the wonderful stories that we have to tell if we get the chance.

As always please spare a thought for all the cats, dogs, rabbits and guinea pigs waiting to be adopted. This edition we feature Ronaldo and Leeza, if you know anyone who is thinking about bringing a new furry family member into their home please forward this email on to them and encourage them to do the same.