Hi fosters and volunteers,
I missed you dreadfully last week, but sometimes your county needs you. Yes, I had jury duty. I’m back, though, with updates and opportunities.
I know you've already marked your calendar for the 20th Anniversary Celebration on October 12th, and you’re probably wondering “where is my invitation?” Well your invitations are in the works: the e-version should go up soon and the mailings will go out in a month or so. Elves are working behind the scenes on getting this ready, but if you feel you have skills that you’d like to use towards this event, please let me know. We’re still looking for one or two more people for the event promotion committee, someone to manage invitations and a live auction coordinator.
If you can’t wait for October, we’ll be at an adoptathon on July 13th at Jack London Square from 10-3. We still have positions open for dog handlers, drivers and setup/breakdown. This is a super fun event, so even if you can’t come, tell your friends and family!
We've also been working behind the scenes on some other new and cool stuff. Some is very proto-new-and-cool and still needs a lot of your help. First, if you have video-making-editing skills, we’d love to know about them! We’re looking to assemble a cool “thank you” video montage with pictures of adopted animals. This sounds like rocket science to us, but we know that to some of you, it’s a piece of cake. Next, are partnering with California Pizza Kitchen in Emeryville: patrons will be eating and drinking for good! We will be looking for people to staff the table, probably on Thursdays, to ensure that 20% of proceeds make it to Hopalong! And lastly, we are expanding our volunteer opportunities at the office to include a daily animal care position. I get asked a lot about hands-on experience with animals and the dirty work of shelters. This is your chance to learn what animal care is like or, if you already know what it is, a good chance just to get a little dirty!
Just a little nitty-gritty detail stuff: It’s summer and you may find yourself with an extra moment on your hands. It might occur to you, “oh, I wonder if Hopalong needs me!” The answer is YES! Then you might think, “oh! How do I know? Where do I go? What do I do?!” Here are some easy ways to find out what’s needed (besides calling and emailing me- I’m around and love to hear from you!): You can bookmark Current Opportunities on the Volunteer and Foster blog. You can double check your profile in our database (get there here) and make sure your preferences are up to date- that’s how I know who to contact with volunteer opportunities. And, if you’re feeling really fancy, you can schedule yourself for opportunities using the calendar on that database! If you've talked to me and told me what you like to do, I’ve marked your profile accordingly. After this, you’ll find that there will often be open slots you can just plug yourself right into- for example, dog handling at that Adoptathon! (Bonus points for people who self-schedule after this email!) And, of course, if you’re REALLY feeling the summer, the shelters are bursting with animals- this is an excellent time to foster!
Special thanks this week to Anne who jumped in to drive AND clean cats, to Steve for last minute coordinating and to Mark and Lisa who have been through the “ringer” lately, fostering a long-term dog and a litter of kittens with some hair loss.
