Today we’d like to introduce you to Danielle Judd. Danielle and her team shared their story with us below:
To give a brief overview, after almost dying of bacterial meningitis while pregnant, Danielle fell into a deep depression as she had lost her memories from the last few years. Rescuing a horse helped her out of her depression and she realized how this could help others, so she set up FarmHouse Rescue. This is a non-profit organization that saves animals and then utilizes the healing powers of animals to help adults with disabilities, depression and anxiety, children in cancer wards via a live feed from the farm and fulfilling end-of-life wishes. Danielle does not pay herself; she works tirelessly day and night and manages to always make everyone feel welcome and included. She has saved over 70 animals and more than a few human lives too, all while being a wife and mom of three. She is the most amazing and selfless person you could meet.
The farm is run on donations and the money made from selling their soaps, which enable the buyer to ‘smell like a pig’, ‘smell like a cow’ etc. They would love to expand, to enable them to save more animals and help more people but while they have the land, they do not have the money for extra enclosures, food and vets bills. They also really need funds to make it more accessible for people in wheelchairs. More exposure will hopefully encourage more people to support them.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Funding has really been our biggest issue. It costs around $10k a month to look after and feed the existing animals we have rescued and just getting that is a huge challenge. We get asked on a weekly basis to take on more animals that need rescuing but we are having to say no because we are the forever home for the animals we have rescued so we need to ensure that we can always meet their needs before taking on any other animals. Also while we need volunteers, we also need someone to supervise the volunteers which can take up quite a lot of time as volunteers come and go and they all need training. Running a nonprofit is hard and it definitely has not been a smooth journey, there are no days off and it is always an uphill battle but you have to appreciate the little daily wins and remember your reason for doing all this.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
We rescue animals and then with those animals we try to help people in many different ways. We recently put up smile cams so that children in cancer wards can have access to the live feed of the farm. Our Smile Boxes introduce them to the farm with a farm animal, art project and other goodies including a writing set so they can become pen pals with the animals. We have been receiving such sweet letters from the kids and the animals are working hard to reply to them all.
On Thursday 23rd February, Danielle received the Comerica Bank Woman of Philanthropy award at the LA Lakers stadium, on the court before the game started. It was her first award and finally a little recognition for all her hard work. We are also in the planning stages of arranging a golf tournament later in the year, another first for FarmHouse Rescue!
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Setting up a nonprofit is a huge risk especially if like Danielle you don’t happen to have millions of dollars in the bank, so are reliant on donations. You have to hope that others see your vision and passion for the cause and want to help. It is impossible to do it alone so you have to be willing to ask and accept help from others but it is all worth the risk in the end.
Contact Info:
- Website: Farmhouserescue.org
- Instagram: Farmhouse_rescue
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/farmhouserescue1
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/farmhouse-rescue/
- Youtube: @farmhouserescue6150
Image Credits
Photos credited to FarmHouse Rescue
