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Chelsea in charge

Big or small, we're going to help them all.
EXTRA-VOW-Chelsea-furry-bos.jpg
Chelsea Wallach poses with one of the largest and one of the smallest horses at the Agriplex recently. Wallach has been volunteering her time to take care of the animals that were evacuated due to the Cariboo wildfires.

Big or small, we're going to help them all.

That's become one volunteer's motto recently as she took on the 24-hours a day, seven day a week position of site coordinator for the furred and feathered wildfire evacuees housed at the Agriplex at the exhibition grounds.

As of late last week, there were 154 horses, four goats, four turkeys, three ferrets, one pot belly pig, one rabbit, 51 chickens and three chicks.

Chelsea Wallach, whose mom, Nora, is the president of the Prince George Horse Society, said she inherited the site coordinator position when work got in the way of her mother's volunteering efforts.

"I haven't left the site in 17 days," Wallach said.

She even slept at the agriplex in the front part of her horse trailer, which is camperized for when she's on the circuit to compete in barrel racing.

"The other day I had 54 Facebook messages, and that's besides the phone calls, texts and e-mails I get," said Wallach. "But I don't mind. I love to let people know that their animals are doing well because that's one less worry for what they're already going through."

The animals are mostly from 100 Mile House, Williams Lake and 150 Mile and some out of Quesnel when it was particularly smoky, Wallach said.

"We've had more than 100 volunteers help with the animals and we've had some awesome, awesome people," she added. "The people here have been doing whatever they can, whenever they can, and they've been amazing. It's so cool."

Most of the animals that have been brought in are identified by either the owner or the hauler but there have been times when animals have been brought in that had been found wandering in the vicinity of the wildfires and Wallach said they've happily reunited owner and pet with great success.

Each horse that comes in has a number put on their hip with special paint. Wallach creates a numbered file on each animal including a physical description of the animal and puts as much information she has on a tag that stays with the animal at all times.

Some horses are in stalls, others in paddocks and all the animals get lots of attention, food, water and fresh bedding.

"It's like they're on vacation - I think that's why the animals are handling it all so well because they're all being primped and pampered," Wallach laughed.

Some horses have never left their farm so it's all new to them and they seem to enjoy all the attention they are getting. The horses get let out of stalls and paddocks to frolic in arenas with their friends, and also get one-on-one time with volunteers who take them for walks on a lead and will groom each horse including brushing them and clean their hooves regularly.

Not a bad life for a horse, added Wallach.

The entire operation of housing more than 200 animals has been run on donations.

"It's been insane," Wallach said. "We put out a call for halters and leads - we needed probably 30, we got 50. We put out a call for salt blocks - and then you couldn't get any in Prince George because people had bought out all the stores to bring them here. And hay donations? We've got them coming in from everywhere - from Quesnel, tons from Alberta, Burns Lake's been awesome. We've got loads of grain, hay and the smaller communities are just blowing my mind."

People have been donating gas cards and cash because there have been people who are taking their horse trailers out to the fire affected areas to collect animals.

"I call it my convoy because when we got the call that the communities were in trouble we sent down 13 trailers the first night and brought back 29 horses and that was day one, so it kinda went boom right off the bat," Wallach said. "Then my haulers continued to go back and forth wherever they were designated to go - it was crazy."

Wallach said she had to get special permits from police for the animal haulers to get through the closed highways to reach the animals in distress.

"No one ever questioned me - they just said 'K, where are we goin', Chels?' and I told them and they went - I have amazing friends," Wallach said.

Wallach, 27, got her first horse when she was nine, competed in a variety of disciplines through the years, calls herself a horsey person, and is a competitive barrel racer.

"And now it's a lifestyle," Wallach laughed.

There's never been any kind of big event planning or extraordinary situation like this one in Wallach's personal history.

"It's do or die, basically," Wallach laughed about how she's managing the operation. "I just had to figure it out. I jumped in with both feet. I've got an amazing, amazing support team here that just asks me what I need and what needs to be done and we just learn as we go and we've made mistakes and we've absolutely had amazing times. It's been kind of unreal when you stop and think about it."

The show of generosity at all levels is something Wallach wants to acknowledge.

"I'm just blown away by how people just want to work together," Wallach said. "We have people from all aspects of the horse world working for a common goal of the wellness of these animals. It's honestly blown my mind, the support from the community, the horse world, the locals, the out-of-towners that just want to bring in supplies, people offering their acreage - there's no words, really, to describe what's going on."

Flip through The Citizen's Volunteer City series, featuring stand-out volunteers in Prince George: