The Bulldog is active on all fronts within the community. We support and help the people in the neighbourhood with hands-on work by our staff and donations made to charity.
For many years, The Bulldog organized a ‘clean-up day’ with people from De Regenboog Groep (‘The Rainbow Group’), an organization that encourages people in (social) poverty to play an active role in society.
During the Neighbourhood Clean Up, they helped out by cleaning the streets of Amsterdam to be more involved in society. In return for their work, they were given free lunch and coffee at one of the locations of The Bulldog.
In 2014, an exhibition of English and French bulldog sculptures that had been painted by famous Dutch artists took to the streets: the DOGPARADE. The event was organized by Energy4All, a charity dedicated to raising awareness for energy metabolism disorder and collecting money for research to find a cure. People born with energy metabolism disorder are always tired, because they have a ‘defective battery’.
For this special initiative The Bulldog sponsored Bobby, a giant English bulldog painted by Gerdine Duijsens. After the wondrous creations were finished, volunteers of The Bulldog helped out by taking them for a walk through Amsterdam.
The dogs went up for auction in May 2015, with all revenue from the auction to be donated to Energy4All. The Bulldog bought four dogs and donated € 47.000 at first, but when the target amount of €100.000 wasn’t reached, Henk de Vries stepped up and added a further €18.000 to help Energy4All reach its goal.
The four dogs bought by us in the auction are still loved members of our family. You can spot Bobby proudly standing guard at The Palace on the Leidseplein. The other three bulldogs are given pride of place at The Bulldog’s head office.
In the summer of 2014, a project was initiated called ARTZUID JUNIOR, an art and education project connecting the youth with art through a design contest. The most talented students got the chance to work with professional artists on sculptures for public spaces.
The Bulldog sponsored Mike Hoekzema (professional poet and visual artist) and Zora Onink (student of the Spinoza Lyceum) to create their sculpture, which they called “The Dog”. The temporary sculpture exhibition was festively opened on June 15th during the celebration of the Vondelpark’s 150th anniversary.
Foundation Bulldogsonline was established with the aim of protecting the English bulldog and helping dogs without an owner find a good and trustworthy new home.
Because we have a big heart for all animals and the English bulldog in particular, The Bulldog became a friend of the organization in the mid-2000s. We have been involved ever since, by donating items from our shop to be used for their raffles at various fundraisers.
