Gin & Tonic bottles plus Super Mario and friends climb Snowdon for Rescue Dogs
Seventeen fancy dress clad hikers & Poppy the border collie made it up and back down Mount Snowdon on Monday.
The extravagantly dressed team included five members of staff from the Royal Mail delivery centre at Werrington, and the trek raised thousands of pounds for the Starlight Barking Trust rescue dog charity. The charity is linked to the Lemnos dog rescue shelter in Greece. The money raised will go towards making the dogs' time at the shelter as comfortable and stress free as possible.
Snowdon's footpaths have rarely looked as colourful as they did on Monday. The team included a bright green bottle of gin accompanied by a bottle of tonic, along with Mario, Luigi and their arch enemy Wario. A horse and a lifeguard even joined the merry band. Poppy didn't want to miss out and was also dressed up for the trip. She treated herself to a well deserved bowl of water at the summit while many of the human hikers, encouraged by their spirited gin bottle fellow traveller, enjoyed something stronger.
The walkers set themselves a modest target of £3,000 this year, but the annual event which has been running for four years now has raised over £32,000 in total and any goal they set is always smashed.
It all began five years ago when post woman Sophie Antonucci met charity co-founder Wendy Lyotier and her rescue dog Jack while delivering mail to Wendy’s Maxey home. Jack had spent three years incarcerated in a Greek cell with no walks, no socialisation and no human contact. His only company was his cell-mate Milo. Sophie watches as Jack slowly learned to trust humans and she resolved to do something to help rescue dogs at the Lemnos shelter.
In 2022, the first year of the sponsored walk, Sophie and several others made it up and down the mountain three times in 16 hours. Nowadays they like to take in the scenery and go at a slightly more sedate pace.
Royal Mail worker Antonella Harrison who wore the gin bottle disguise (possibly with a flask of gin concealed in it) helped with the organisation of the walk. Antonella said “ A big thank you to Royal Mail and all my colleagues that have kindly donated to the charity!! I was blown away with their generosity. A massive Thank you to Sophie, as without her this would have never started. What she has done has helped so many dogs and brought together many people to achieve something not only challenging but also rewarding. “
Wendy Lyotier was unable to join the team this year but paid tribute to the hikers saying “the charity is so grateful to Sophie, her family, friends & Royal Mail Colleagues for the fantastic support they have given us. People ask us why we work with Greek dogs when we have so many unwanted dogs in the UK. Our answer is simply, if you saw the unimaginable conditions these dogs live in, any dog-lover would want to help. It's totally inhumane and the shelter is stuck out in the middle of nowhere with the dogs left to rot. Most of them will end their days there & no-one seems to care. Were it not for the volunteers who visit when they can the dogs would have no hope at all. In the UK there are many wonderful rescue centres doing fantastic work, but in many cases they are reluctant to re-home dogs to the elderly. We have found our niche and have many supporters who are ready to take on the challenge of adopting one of these dogs. The dogs need nothing more than time & love.
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