A Day Well Spent: Volunteering at Deanshanger Hedgehog Rescue

At Pragmatiq, every team member has the opportunity to dedicate one day a year to volunteer at a charity of their choice. Kathryn Dack, our Finance Manager, recently chose to support Deanshanger Hedgehog Rescue – a local charity providing ongoing care and rehabilitation to unwell, abandoned, or injured hedgehogs, with the hope of being able to release healthy hedgehogs back in the wild.

It was great to hear about Kathryn’s volunteering experience and learn about what she got up to during the day…

[quoteundefined]“I had been seeing a lot of social media posts about an amazing local charity, Deanshanger Hedgehog Rescue, and all the good work they do, and decided this was the place for me! They have wonderful facilities and house many injured, sick, and lost hedgehogs that have found themselves wandering where they shouldn’t.”[/quote]

How was your day volunteering? 

“After meeting the lovely Rachel (the co-founder of the charity) and learning all about the charity and their mission, we sprang into action!

The team had wanted to build a 3-story hutch for some time, but as they also have full-time jobs outside of the charity, they hadn’t had time to do this yet. It was also becoming more pressing, with a growing number of hedgehog residents to look after.

We got to work on building the hutch; however, this was no easy feat with the instructions flying around in the cold winter wind! We eventually got through it with lots of laughter, and the organisation now has a brilliant hedgehog home that will hopefully be of good use for years to come.”

What was your favourite part of the day? 

“I had the privilege of helping to weigh each hedgehog whilst a regular volunteer did the less fun job of cleaning out their pods, and Rachel administered the medication where needed. As you can see in the pictures, these tiny creatures are so cute and spending a day with them and the team from really was just wonderful.

I was also able to help with moving one hedgehog, named Sian, from an incubator to a normal pod. Incubators are used to help sick and young hedgehogs maintain their body temperature and give them the best chance of survival, so it was incredibly heartwarming to help Sian into her move into her new pod, after recovering from a tough few weeks.”

Any other comments?

“I was given so much help and information during my short time at the rescue and am now considering if I can volunteer for them on a regular basis. The whole experience was really rewarding, and I would encourage anyone to support this wonderful local charity through a donation, sponsorship, or adopting a hedgehog where possible. Rachel, Dom, the volunteers, and the hedgehogs will be very grateful!”

Thank you to Kathryn for sharing her experience with us – it sounds wonderful! We look forward to sharing more team stories from volunteering days, so stay tuned. 

Please visit the Deanshanger Hedgehog Rescue website to learn more about the organisation and how you can support it.