The Company of Wolves (2004)

Pollyanna and Virginia McKenna with 'Midnight Hour'

A big Thank You to everybody who contributed towards the Foundation's major fund-raising project 'The Company of Wolves'. Pollyanna's 2004 Summer Exhibition, inspired by her travels in Transylvania was her most successful to date, and the Pollyanna Pickering Foundation raised a total of £5660.00 through a percentage of sales, ticket sales and donations to help wolf conservation.

A celebrity launch for the grand prize draw was held in January 2004, and the winning ticket was drawn in July by Sporting legend Bob Champion.

A cheque of £3650.00 has already been to Virginia McKenna, founder of Born Free to help fund their work with the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Project. Last autumn Rabies took a deadly hold among the wolves of the Bale Mountains National Park, and with only 500 remaining, a state of emergency was declared. The EWCP tranquillises, inoculates and re-releases the wolves. To date the project has been a great success, with no known problems or mortality amongst the vaccinated wolves. In addition, Number One of Pollyanna's new Limited Edition 'Midnight Hour' was auctioned at a recent Born Free Gala Evening, and raised a further £470.00 for the charity.

Smaller donations have also been made to Milvus, a Romanian conservation group, and Wolfwatch UK. Although the Carpathian Large Carnivore Project has now completed its ten year project to study and monitor the wolves in Romania, Pollyanna is keeping in touch with the project's founders. They are currently planning to construct a Centre in Transylvania to help secure the survival of these beautiful animals in the wild, through education and responsible and carefully managed eco-tourism. The plans are in the early stages, but Pollyanna intends to continue her involvement - and has already been invited to hold the first exhibition of paintings in the exhibition centre once it is completed!

"I am absolutely speechless! What a fantastic donation from your exhibition."
Virginia McKenna, Born Free Foundation

"Thank you once again from everybody at the born Free Foundation, and a special thank you from the animals, who we couldn't help without the kindness of people like yourselves"
Trisha Loveland, Fund-raising Officer, Born Free