Alpacas raise money for Dame Hannahs

Thorn Alpacas near Dartmouth opened their gates to the public last weekend as part of the National Alpaca Open Day and raised over £100 for Dame Hannahs. Owner Katie Franks and her family welcomed many visitors to Thorn Farm to meet her herd of alpacas. They ran a Name the Cria (baby alpaca) competition and all proceeds went to Dame Hannahs.
Katie has known about Dame Hannahs for over 30 years and has raised funds for the charity at events over the years. Katie is a small breeder who started keeping alpacas in 2007. She originally had just two alpacas then one fell pregnant and now she has 19. She also sells knitwear which is made solely from Thorn alpacas and knitted locally in Devon.
Katie said: “I love keeping alpacas as they are so funny, curious, gentle and sensitive. They are also instinctively intelligent, good “watch dogs” and easy to look after. I have known about Dame Hannahs for 30 years and I was really pleased to be able to help them by running the Name the Cria competition. I can reveal the winning name was Aurelia. Dame Hannahs do wonderful work with disabled people and alot of alpacas are very good with disabled people. The Open Day was a great success and it was lovely to see so many new visitors and to raise some money for Dame Hannahs”.
Debbie Lumsdon, Dame Hannahs Community Engagement Officer who attended the Alpaca Open Day, said “Thank you to Katie and Nico for welcoming me to Thorn Farm for National Alpaca Open Day. The Name the Cria competition was a huge success and raised £105 for Dame Hannahs. The alpacas were beautiful and mesmerising and everyone who came to the event thoroughly enjoyed meeting them”.