Hello and Happy Wednesday to everyone!

My husband and I FINALLY did it!  Last week, we did our best to carve out some time and actually got away for the week!  It was the first vacation we took in 2 years!  It was great to see some friends and family and also some of the wild horses in Missouri!  It wasn’t a complete “work-free” week, I always have my laptop with me and took some time to do a few things that needed my attention.

The Missouri wild horses ARE protected under federal law!  This is something we are actively working on at a state and federal level for the Theodore Roosevelt National Park wild horses. 

We are preparing for a few very important meetings this week! 

Holly from Bice Policy Group will have the first draft of our state legislation for us this week!  We have a meeting with her on Friday to go over her first draft!  This is very exciting and seems so surreal!  We have been talking about this for a while now and here we are! 

Once we approve of what Holly has written, we are sending it off to some of our state legislators and then Holly and I will meet with them to discuss any changes they would like to see.  Once we have legislation that is agreed upon, it will go to the legal counsel for approval.  Once that approval happens, we will be all set for it to be entered into the 2025 North Dakota Legislative Session!

We will share a copy of the legislation as soon as a final draft is approved!

Also happening this Friday, we will be meeting with the acting TRNP Superintendent Nancy Finley and Blake McCann again at Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  They asked us at the last meeting to share our thoughts on management of the horses and we have sent an email expressing some concerns that we will be discussing this week!  We will share a recap of the meeting with you Friday! 

And then we have another legal issue we have had to deal with.  If it does not resolve itself tomorrow, we will have a meeting with our lawyers on Friday.  We will share more on this as it develops. 

We will be spending the rest of this week preparing for these important meetings.  We know it gets quiet sometimes, but there is so much happening as we move forward to get permanent protection for the amazing herd of wild horses that call Theodore Roosevelt National Park home!

Just a few reminders:

Our friend Trish Bonnette took one of our photos of Alluvium and created this beautiful painting of Alluvium.

This is a 12×16 pastel original. Trish has graciously donated this item to us to auction off as a way to help support our advocacy work!

Through 10/1/2024, for every donation of $10 that you make to Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates, you will get one entry for a chance to win this one-of-a-kind painting valued at $600! Trish will even frame this piece for you! You will be automatically entered to win with any donation of $10 or more that you make through 10/1/2024!

As a 501(c)3, your donation is 100% tax deductible! All money raised for this giveaway will be used for our Giving Tuesday matching fund. You can make your donation here: https://secure.everyaction.com/FbY2_tNxQU6Ehc9K2RsjZw2 or you can make a donation by hitting the donate button on any of our social media posts!

Thank you for your support and thank you to Trish for her generous and beautiful one-of-a-kind donation!

You can view more of Trish’s work here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/trish-77/explore?page=1&sortOrder=recent

To help meet our expenses as we continue to fight for the freedom of the wild horses that call the park home, we have two of our largest fundraising campaigns coming up: Giving Tuesday on December 3, 2024, and Giving Hearts Day on February 13, 2025. 

How you can help:

• We have set a goal to raise $5,000 in matching funds for both campaigns!  This will give us the opportunity to raise $10,000 for each campaign when your donation is maximized and matched by our supporters.  You can make your tax-deductible donation to support our matching funds for Giving Tuesday here: https://secure.everyaction.com/k7hv_PV1xkClgzs7JF0yIA2  and for Giving Hearts Day here:  https://secure.everyaction.com/KrELigjJckyX7vqDTjTdzg2  Donations can also be mailed to us at:

Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates
P.O. Box 3562
Dickinson, ND  58602

•  We will be holding merchandise auctions to raise money for our matching funds!  You can help by donating your new, or gently used items!  We often get asked and YES!  You can also donate gift certificates from your business!  Our first auction will be October 25-November 3, 2024, and the second will be December 1-8, 2024.  You can email us at info@chwha.org and let us know you have an item to donate and arrange for us to pick it up from you.  You can also upload the item information to our auction website.  If you choose the latter, we will send you information on who to ship the items to once the auction is over.  You can upload items for our October auction here: https://chwha.betterworld.org/donate-an-item?_gl=1*wuqf94*_gcl_au*ODIwOTE4MzI0LjE3MjU2NDc1NDguMTQxNTA5NTI2LjE3MjU2NDg5NzQuMTcyNTY1MDcwMg.. and items for our December Auction can be uploaded here: http://chwha.betterworld.org/donate-an-item?_gl=1%2A1oxgtt3%2A_gcl_au%2AODIwOTE4MzI0LjE3MjU2NDc1NDguMTQxNTA5NTI2LjE3MjU2NDg5NzQuMTcyNTY0OTU0NQ.. Donations can also be dropped off at the Chasing Horses retail store located at 312 Pacific Ave in Medora. 
  
  You can view the items that have been donated so far here: http://chwha.betterworld.org/auctions/2024-fall-silent-auction?_gl=1%2A15zvefm%2A_gcl_au%2AODIwOTE4MzI0LjE3MjU2NDc1NDguMTM3MTYxNDkwNC4xNzI3MjE4Mjg3LjE3MjcyMTg0ODQ.

You can learn more about Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates and our work to save this historic wild horse herd on our website at www.chwha.org.  You can also view our 2023 Annual Report that highlights our effective advocacy work on the homepage of our website. 

Thank you for your continued support and have a great week!  Be sure to check back on Friday for some important updates!

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