The Five Guiding Principles of HEEFS - by Cheri Gibson, Animal Caregiver
/These are the five principles that guide us at the sanctuary everyday with everything we do. They are also the reason why I chose to work at HEEFS and the reason why so many volunteers choose to join our family and grow with us. We celebrate these guidelines in many ways and always strive to include them into our everyday activities at the Sanctuary. As an Animal Caregiver at HEEFS, I am always thinking about how I can introduce more kindness, peace, love and compassion into the lives of our residents and how we, as a Sanctuary, can educate the world to respect and adopt these choices, too. Here are some examples of how the Five Guiding Principles have been put into action at HEEFS.
Love
Speak to people who have visited the Sanctuary and the first thing you will hear is that there is something different in the air. There’s a calming presence that is immediately felt and I like to label that feeling: Love. In fact, love is everywhere at HEEFS - from the welcome staff and volunteers receive when we sign in for our shift, to the thank you for our work at the end of the day. You will often hear Derek, and others, say, “love lives here” and “love for all”. These aren’t just words. These are actions that can be seen at HEEFS when we “help” our residents send Valentines to their favourite volunteer and caregivers, and out in the community as we proudly support events like our local Pride parade.
Peace
Much of this year has been very stressful for so many people, so finding our inner peace is such an important thing to do for both our mental and physical health. And at HEEFS, we take this very seriously. The staff and volunteers find peace at HEEFS through guided visualizations, meditations, and walking meditations around the Sanctuary grounds and by spending time in our tranquil Memorial Trail.
Kindness
It is a reality of volunteer life at HEEFS that our volunteers work particular days and/or particular times so they often only know the other volunteers, and staff, who work the same shifts. Knowing that everyone at the Sanctuary shares similar values and believes whole-heartedly in our Five Guiding Principles, we decided to help bring our whole community together through the creation of a “kindness gift” exchange. The gift exchange involved making a craft, or purchasing a small treat, that would bring joy to someone at HEEFS based on a few fun facts about their favourite resident. These incredibly creative and generous gifts inspired volunteers to post virtual thank you’s to their new friends and to arrange to meet them in person at HEEFS.
Compassion
We wanted to bring messages of compassion from around the world to HEEFS, so we decorated rocks with our favourite quotes about compassion. We then created a Compassion Trail on the Sanctuary property that will continue to grow year after year. Now, and into the future, whenever a volunteer or staff member needs some inspiration, the Compassion Trail will be there to offer it.
Education
The opportunity to share our knowledge about the true nature of farmed animals with others is one of the best ways we know to help make the world a better place for them, and for us. The biweekly social media posts from our fabulous supervisors, Andrea and Kevin, provide information and fun facts about our residents, their care and their routines, and about ongoing and upcoming Sanctuary projects. It is so important that we continue to educate those who may never meet a farmed animal in person so that they can begin to see these amazing beings as the individuals they are, each with his or her own unique personality.
