Icy challenge for Heart Kids
A group of friends with heart conditions have done something cool for the charity that has helped them their whole lives.
On Sunday, family and friends gathered in Upper Hutt to watch 14-year-old Ciara Griffin and her team members take an icy plunge to raise funds for Heart Kids.
The event, now marking its 20th anniversary, is called the 360 Heart Stopper Challenge. For 360 seconds, participants sit in a tub of cold water and ice, or a paddling pool, or stand in a cold shower to represent how surgeons have to pack the chest cavity with an icy slush when performing open-heart surgery.
“It feels really good to be giving back to the charity that has helped us our whole lives," Ciara said.
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⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️
It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:
👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️