Life for the CEO of Many Tears animal rescue in Llanelli was momentarily quieter during lockdown and she decided to do something unique to raise money for her beloved dogs. When many of her staff were furloughed, Sylvia Van Atta decided to use her spare time to restore her dream caravan but things soon got busy again.
After spending over 800 hours transforming the derelict vehicle into a beautiful Romany-style caravan worth over £10k, she is now selflessly donating it to a raffle to fund a new play area for her beloved dogs.
It took Sylvia two years to restore the caravan, which she has also hand-painted, and she is hoping to raise enough funds to turn the current Many Tears rescue play area into a haven for the rescued dogs waiting to be adopted. The rescue primarily takes in ex-breeding dogs who are no longer wanted, those on "death row" in pounds and those whose owners can no longer take care of them. You can get more Carmarthen news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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"It's really important to me to make it the best stay ever and not a prison camp really," said Sylvia, who devotes her life to saving dogs across the UK. "I hate kennels but it's a necessity. We do get them in foster homes but it takes time and at the moment we're getting absolutely hammered with dogs, we've got so many and our funds are just draining. There are so many things that need to be done for Many Tears but we don't have the funds for it."
The busy CEO and dog-lover said their current play area is like a "prison camp" and she is desperate to renovate it. "The dogs come in from breeding kennels and they haven't had the best experiences. So while they're with us, I want them to be really happy and interested and wanting to engage with people. If they do nice things with us, they'll like us more," added Sylvia.
It will come at a cost though, even the artificial grass for the new play area will set them back around £5k, explained Sylvia. The Many Tears team are hoping to raise funds through their upcoming raffle to overhaul it completely. "[The dogs] have got nothing to run up, hide under or play. I've got all these plans, we just need the money to do it," said Sylvia.
Tickets are £5 to enter the raffle and get the chance to win the caravan, which could be used for a place to escape to or even sold for some extra cash. The caravan started its life as a milk cart in The Valleys and was owned by haulage company Collet. It was later sold to travellers who built the bow top, said Sylvia.
Doing up the caravan over the past two years provided Sylvia with an escape from the daily worries of the animal rescue. "It did my head some good and it will do my head a lot of good to see the dogs happy," she said. "It's worth all the hours I've put in, if it does some good for my dogs," she added.
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