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Calling all Busy Bees
 PDSA founder, Maria Dickin CBE, was so convinced that children were vital to improving the health and welfare of animals, that in 1934 she set up the Busy Bees Club, aimed at PDSA’s younger supporters. Maria Dickin herself was the Club’s first ‘Queen Bee’ and after her death, her friend, the world-famous children’s author, Enid Blyton, took on the role.
Thanks to the Busy Bees Club, thousands of children learned how to look after their dogs, cats, rabbits and small furries. They tirelessly collected silver foil, saved their pocket money, and took part in numerous special sponsored events raising thousands of pounds for the treatment of sick and injured pets. Doubtless, they also had a wonderful time into the bargain.
 Today, the Busy Bees Club is no more. In its place is a new children’s club, PDSA Pet Protectors. However, the aim remains the same: encouraging young people to think about animal welfare in a fun and friendly way.
Can you help us revive the memories of Busy Bees? Do you have any old copies of the Busy Bees Newsletter, or letters from Enid Blyton thanking you for a donation?
Please contact us with your stories of what it was like to be a Busy Bee. The more information you can include the better, and if you have any original pictures, badges or correspondence, that would be greatly appreciated. (Of course everything will be very carefully taken care of and returned to you, if you send it with a SAE).  To celebrate PDSA’s recent 90th anniversary and mark 90 years of caring for sick and injured pets, PDSA would like to produce a special anniversary edition of the Busy Bees Newsletter. Actor William Roache MBE, (Coronation Street’s Ken Barlow), is himself a former Busy Bee. He has very kindly agreed to lend his support to this nostalgic appeal and to help edit the newsletter.
Everybody who contacts us will be sent their very own special anniversary edition of the Busy Bees Newsletter.
We hope to publish as many stories as we can in future issues of Update, so please get in touch either via our Busy Bee's contact form or in writing to Gill Hubbard, Busy Bees, PDSA Head Office, Whitechapel Way, Priorslee, Telford, Shropshire TF2 9PQ. |
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