Over 26,000 served!
Bunny Besties has been featured for Minnesota Live at 5 Eyewitness News, Mackenzie Child's on ShopHQ, in the Huffington Post, The Star Tribune, pictured in the Wall Street Journal, WCCO, Kare11, KSTP News Minnesota, Fox 9 news, Pet Partners Magazine, The Jason Show, Minnetonka Schools District Website, and Lakeshore Weekly just to name a few. Check out our amazing press here, by clicking on the button below!
Bunny Besties' mission is to provide impactful Animal Assisted Interactions to support the emotional wellness of our community. We provide sanctuary to the rabbits in our program as well as resources and education to rabbit owners in our community. Bunny Besties' vision is to be a resource for our community for emotional wellness, stress reduction and education with rabbits. |
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About Us!About: Bunny Besties is an all-volunteer nonprofit that addresses the heightened stress in our community. We do it with cuddly loving bunnies and with the principles founded through studies at Mayo Clinic and our work with Boynton Health Services Pet Away Worry and Stress (PAWS) Program at the University of Minnesota. Our rescued rabbits have a unique ability to lower stress of the humans around them and bring joyfulness to those in challenging life transitions. We host bunny interactions in college and other
educational settings, homeless shelters, libraries, senior living, and hospices in the greater Twin Cities area of Minnesota, USA. Results: Bunny Besties has been traveling around our community since 2012 serving our mission on-site for our partners. Our partners have included the University of Minnesota PAWS program, Homeless shelters serving children, libraries, nursing homes, hospice programs, and Minnetonka High School. We have served our partners with 446 on-site visits to their facilities. We have volunteered 8,420+ service hours from our organization into their organizations resulting in serving more than 23,749 community members. We may be a small nonprofit, but we are dedicated to our mission and making a big impact in our community. Programs: Our programs include bringing Animal Assisted Interactions and Animal Assisted Activities to nursing homes, high schools, universities, libraries, and any other local schools or organizations looking for a hoppy experience to reduce stress and bring emotional wellness to their organization. This includes our traveling rabbit agility show, our hoppy hour with our bunny castle and one on one therapy bunny cuddles. |
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Presidential Volunteer Service Award
Bunny Besties is a proud certifying organization for the Presidential Volunteer Service Award. The PVSA program utilizes two groups of organizations to certify service awards. Certifying organizations or CO's are an integral part of the PVSA process to recognize outstanding citizens in our communities. "The ability to bestow Presidential recognition to your volunteers is a tremendous honor," the letter stated. "Recognizing the great work and commitment of your volunteers can deliver a powerful message, one that encourages others to take action." In 2003, the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation founded the President's Volunteer Service Award to recognize the important role of volunteers in America's strength and national identity. This award honors individuals whose service positively impacts communities in every corner of the nation and inspires those around them to take action, too. The PVSA has continued under each administration, honoring the volunteers who are using their time and talents to solve some of the toughest challenges facing our nation. Led by the Points of Lights, this program allows Certifying Organizations to honor their most exceptional volunteers. Bunny Besties wants each volunteer to work towards a Presidential Volunteer Service Award each year. During our Volunteer Appreciation Spring Celebration we will be giving these awards for the hours that have been logged by our volunteers all year in POINT. We have given this award to so many exceptional people including the University of Minnesota PAWS program. This year our Founder and Executive Director received her Lifetime Achievement Award. It was Jennifer who really pushed early on for Bunny Besties to be a prestigious Certifying Organization (CO) for the PVSA. Our volunteers can take hours from all the places that they volunteer be it school, clubs or other nonprofit organizations. Bunny Besties encourages adding up all hours of service plus the hours volunteered at Bunny Besties and we will honor your leadership with this amazing award. Combining hours from all areas of helping our community is what Bunny Besties wants to honor. We will certify all of your volunteer hours to make sure you get a PVSA knowing that finding a CO is not always easy. Bunny Besties just wants to encourage giving to the community we love. How did Bunny Besties become a CO one might ask? A CO is an organization that has been granted authority to approve volunteer service hours. This prestigious honor is given through an application and review process to outstanding organizations. We are proud to be an Official Certifying Organization of the Presidential Volunteer Service Award since 2017 through Points of Light. Thank you to all of our exceptional volunteers who have helped us to reach more than 26,000 people in our community with bunny love! |