First my apoiligies for taking so long to get this written but I just recently got busy in "retirement" and just got this done. I wanted to do a better write up but I am concerned that with the recent incidents that have happened it just cannot wait. Also, for anyone concerned, I realize that this may not only be an Africa Forum related item, thus I asked Saeed's permission to post here which he has given me. With that preamble behind me, here goes.

I first got involved with Something More Safaris (SMS) when a good friend John Greeff was mauled by a Leopard in Tanzania. Many of you I have actually met due to that circumstance and due to much of your help and support John is getting on much better. That is not where the issue started however but most can remember when Brittany Boddington had a hunting accident with a dog handler named Punki in Namibia. To help Punki Craig worked with Dave Dunn (founder of SMS) to create the Boddington Fund just for this purpose. The basic value of this fund is to gain the benefit of tax free dollars to do many things with the primary one of course to help PH's and Trackers when seriously injured and to defray loss of income, medical costs, etc. It worked very well with both Punki and in the case of John Greeff. Now we have two new incidents and I will break this post into two segments to deal with two subjects related to PH injuries, not two people.
I will start with Owain Lewis and Anthony Howland as the first subject. We can, will an absoloutly use the Boddington PH Relief Fund (current re-name) to benefit both families. The fact that Owain has left us and there is no medical bills, etc. has nothing to do with it in my mind. His family is suddenly left with a loss of income not to mention the loss of a father and husband. We cannot do much in that regard but we can do a lot to support the family in this tough time. In the case of Anthony, yes, there are the issues of loss of income, medical, rehab, etc. To both of these families, anyone can make a donation through SMS and specify that they would like it to be directed to the Lewis Relief Fund or the Howland Relief Fund and we can make sure that those things happen. Please undertand that we are all a volunteer staff and by making such a committment, I am asking a lot of the other volunteers so at the end of this I will also post the SMS website. I should point out that I have been on the board of SMS along with Craig Boddington, Paul Reed, Dave Dunn, Doug Turnbull, etc. who also post here. Trust me guys, it is all we say it is and the money does go where it is supposed to. As to both of these families, I am also willing to coordinate some form of raffle, fund raising, etc. and would appreciate any support on the necessary legwork, etc. I am interested in ideas so PM me if you have them. The last time Butch Searcy was very generous with helping with the cost of a rifle that we raffled off for John Greeff. Any idea like that is appreciated. How much we can raise and how soon, I do not know. Any help I can get will just speed it along. For clarity, SMS and the Boddington PH relief fund is a 501.c.3 non-profit entity so donations are tax deductible. I will let you now reflect on ideas we can use to raise money for these needy families and comments to this post are appreciated.

Now for the second topic of this post. Sadly, we are always caught on our back foot when this happens and what a POS year this is turning out to be with two serious and one deadly incident this year. Paul Reed and I have been collaborating with Dave Dunn (EZRA4570 on AR) to establish a more permanent source of funding so that when something tragic like this happens we can be first responders and help out immediately. Simple fact is, there is no financial basis for this fund until we create it so we have to do a special fund raising, each time (for me it has been one, John Greeff). I would like to hear any and all ideas on how to establish some permanency to this fund. We would monitor it with a specially assigned board of which I would even like one of the well recognized Zim, TZ,MZ, BOTS or SA PH's to also be a part of to ensure that true need and justification exist before we disburse some funds. I have had discussions with John Greeff, Buzz, Martin Peters, and others and all seem to want to be a part of that effort so I think finding a rotating PH board member will not be hard. We still need to structure how we will raise funds to establish a permananent fund but I did not want to post this as always on our backfoot, lets think ahead. Most of us truely love to hunt Dangerous Game and it is named appropriately. Our PH friends and Trackers are always in front of us and in danger far more than we are. This is just one of the "insurance policies" we can create to give something back to them.

In closing, I want to post the link to the SMS website. Guys, SMS is far more than just this so give it some time to read and digest. We are also sponsoring an orphanage in Wanke and that all came about because John Greeff had his eyes opened on what others can do to help each other when we came to his aid. I guess it is a little of "pay it forward".

Please give this post some thought, there are many great people on this website, many of them have become great friends of mine, just by meeting here so I know the quality of people here and your comments and PM's are helpful in moving this effort forward. We have two items to think about here. First, any tax free fundraising we can do for these two individuals and their families, and secondly, how do we move this idea forward for a more established funding.

Regards,

Larry

http://somethingmoresafaris.com/index.php

Larry, AR Colleagues

Thank you on behalf of our team at Something More Safaris for posting this summary above. It outlines our efforts which have been challenging in trying to “reinvigorate” SMS over the past few months and the timing is appropriate given the unfortunate incidents of our colleagues in the Safari industry as of late. As we move forward on our plans we can keep our friends at AR up to date on our efforts and goals and progress in helping those in need.

Those of you that know Larry know that he is a man of action with a kind and generous heart. Larry and I met about a year ago when I joined the SMS board and we both had like-minded thinking about moving the goals of SMS forward. While I am less well known than Larry on the Forum, I think you will find that all of us on the SMS board referenced by Larry above are driven to utilize the organization to help people in need, particularly in Africa and more directly those working in the safari industry. We have trying to find the right mix of practical action (helping those hurt in the safari industry) with the mechanics of having enough funding and working capital to have a functioning organization. We are all doing this completely volunteer and are in the process of revising the board, getting our immediate actions up and running and dealing with the leadership of the organization. Dave Dunn, Larry and I have agreed that Larry and I will work under a co-presidency arrangement with the idea of helping to split the work and idea generation and would actively entertain anyone’s offer of input and support. As Larry states we are operating under a strict 501c3 arrangement set up by Dave a few years ago and will make completely certain that all funding is first utilized under the adherence of all laws and secondly where it will do the most good.

Larry and I are collaborating on all the SMS activities and in particular trying to focus on utilizing funds to help injured PHs and safari industry workers first. We are finalizing a plan that we will bring to the Forum to help implement. Also another effort we are working is (and is mostly my focus due to my career background) is revising the SMS Web site Larry references above to get our message out. For now it is the best we can offer but it is neither completely accurate nor up to date. We are using a volunteer developer to update the changes to the original Web site link above and of course that effort is going to take a bit more time due to the volunteer nature of the work. If anyone has or knows of someone with good IT and Web development skills I would be happy to talk with them if they would like to help. We are not talking about a fancy Web development project. Larry and I will keep AR posted on our progress and how you can help. We plan to drive this forward as quickly as we can with the only real goal to help those in need…starting first with safari workers.

On behalf of Larry, Dave and SMS Board, thanks in advance for any help this great Forum and its member can provide.

Paul

Hi Paul and Larry

First off congrats on your efforts on getting SMS up and running. Knowing Larry I am 100% confident that unlike other "funds" SMS monies generated will go to the intended parties and not disappear or be diluted into "admin costs" etc etc!With this in mind you guys certainly have my full support!

On the IT front Paul Charmain who works for us and up grades our website and does a pretty good job of it can help out if you so wish. CMS will be happy to cover the costs if she works outside of our working hours. She is pretty switched on in that department. I am not sure been a continent apart if that would be a problem bearing in mind that is coming from me who is virtually computer illiterate!

If you think she could be of help drop me a line and we will take it from there. Cheers for now Buzz

Thanks for the iniative and posting.

I will donate the profits of a complete plains game safari to the cause. Please contact me through PM or at e-mail address given below.

In good hunting.

Thanks both to Buzz and to Andrew for offers of help. As Paul said we are working hard right now to get better organized and both work the funraising, awareness, etc. so please be patient. Buzz is helping me connect with the Howland family so that we can get the channels opened. Anyone wanting to can in the meantime use the normal SMS website and address if they want to make a donation. Remember, that given Anthony is a current issue, our long term goal is to have a more permanent fund so we can respond quickly. Paul and I are currently brainstorming some auction and or raffle ideas so please keep reading posts and we will update you. Also, we have some great footage with John Greeff on what the Relief Fund did for him that we hope to develop into a commercial.

Thanks again,

Larry

I reiterate Larry’s “Thank You” to Buzz and Andrew for their offers of help and support. We will keep you posted on our efforts. Buzz, I’m trying to get an update from our current Web developer to get all the development code that she has done so far to avoid reinventing the wheel. Once I get that I will come back to you and see how Charmin can help us. We are not looking to invest the time right now in a fancy Website but more like something simple that will give our message and how people can help. Thank you again for your kind offer…will be in touch.

Paul

A few more folks here I'd like to salute.