Happy Wednesday

Hi All,

I hope you and your pets are staying cool today or enjoying the sun or maybe a little bit of both!

First, it’s time to give out our Volunteer of the Month award! April’s honoree is Gina Altomare who has been rocking the dog program this month! Gina has been here tirelessly, helping Erica with the dirty work and the busy work and some of the fun work, too! Thanks, Gina, for screening apps, driving dogs, cleaning and setting up, doing paperwork, and all of the other good stuff!

Next, some awesome news! Long term dogs Kevin (in his home, left) and Janie were both adopted this week! Thank you to fosters Erin and Patty and Godwin (and families!) for loving these guys for a little longer than usual.

We’ve got so much stuff coming up that there’s no way I’ll be able to fit it all in here without writing one of my novel-length emails. Short version: we’ve got cat shifts available galore in various places. We still need a handler and a driver for this Saturday’s dog mobile. The Skip-a-Thon is coming up Saturday the 10^th and we need 2 volunteers and you can also just go and skip along! (See what I did there?) As usual, all of the opportunities here- and many many more including Maddie’s (May 31^st-June 1^st) are here, in detail. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks, everyone, and have a great evening!

Opportunities April 28 and Forward!

• When: Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays 9:30ish-10:30ish (ongoing) 
• Where: The Office
• What: Weekly Cat Care shift. Kitten season is here and it's messy! We need volunteers to love on these guys and not mind scooping and scrubbing! Sign up to get down and dirty and your kitten fix at the same time.

• When: Saturday, May 3, 12-3
• Where: Pet Food Express, Berkeley (San Pablo and University)
• What: 1 dog handlers, 1 transporter to/from

• When: Monday, Tuesdays and Thursdays anytime (ongoing) and some other shifts during the week
• Where: PetCo, Alameda
• What: Cat Cuddling at our mobile adoption site in Alameda

• When: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays (ongoing), afternoons
• Where: The Office
• What: Cat Cuddling at the office

• When: An evening TBD 
• Where: At the office
• What: Thank-a-Thon. We will be calling all donors ($5-$50,000) starting this month on a weekday evening that works for as many volunteers as possible. If you're interested in this, please let me know what weekday is best so we can get started!

• When: Sundays, Ongoing (and some other shifts)
• Where: Petsmart, Pinole
• What: Cat cuddling at our mobile adoption site in Pinole

UNUSUAL BUT AWESOME!

• When: Saturday, May 10th
• Where: San Francisco
• What: Skip-a-thon! This is a walk-a-thon type event but skipping! The whole world is invited to, well, skip! We'll need 2 volunteers, but mostly we'll need you to come, have fun, and skip! More info coming soon, but registration now available here.

• When: Ongoing, about an hour a week, spread out
• Where: Home
• What: Write posts for our new blog! We've got the topics, you provide the content!

WAY IN THE FUTURE! Mark your calendars and sign up now!

• When: Saturday, May 31st-Sunday June 1st
• Where: Emeryville
• What: Maddie's Adoptathon! We'll need everything- dog handlers and coordinators, cat handlers and coordinators, basically everyone! So fun, so busy!

• When: Friday, July 4th
• Where: Alameda
• What: We'll be joining Alameda See Spot run in the Alameda 4th of July parade- 3 miles of fun! We may have a mobile, we'll definitely have kids, and it will be really hot and fun :)

• When: Sautrday, May 17th, 2-6:30 PM
• Where: Emeryville (Bay Street)
• What: 4 3 people to help out at the Wine Walk! This is a SUPER fun event where people buy tickets and drink wine! All proceeds go to Hopalong. Schmooze, talk up Hopalong, dance a little!

Wonderful Wednesday!

Hi all and happy Wednesday!

I hope you are doing well! We’ve had a whirlwind week here- 5 more puppies came in today (thank you to the fosters who stepped up so quickly to take these guys in!) Kittens have started and thank you also to the fosters who are coming in almost daily to pick up litters! If you didn’t receive an email about kitten fostering last week and think kitten fostering is for you, please let me know!

We’ve got some volunteer opportunities coming up- some new, some old, and they’re on the blog. One of the things we need most urgently is a prize wheel. Strange request, I know, but I know there are crafty members of this list, and it’s your moment to shine! We also need someone to start managing our Craigslist postings again. This takes about an hour a week, but in chunks spread out throughout the week. Not hard, super super helpful!

You might not have heard yet, but Maddie’s Pet Adoption Days are coming right up! If you weren’t with us last summer or somehow slept through June, Maddie’s is an all-hands-on-deck type event, and the earlier the better in terms of sign-ups! If you’re free for any part of May 31^st (Saturday) or June 1^st (Sunday), let me know! We need *everyone- dogs, cats, tablers, etc! This is a really fun adoption event at Bay Street, Emeryville when basically all of our animals get adopted. More details to come, but for now, mark your calendars and let me know if you’re available!

As always, thank you for everything, and have a wonderful rest-of-week.

Best,

Opportunities April 21st and Forward!

• When: Monday, Tuesdays and Thursdays anytime (ongoing) and some other shifts during the week
• Where: PetCo, Alameda
• What: Cat Cuddling at our mobile adoption site in Alameda

• When: Saturday, April 26th, 12-3
• Where: Fenton's on Piedmont
• What: 1 dog handler, 1 transporter to/from

• When: An evening TBD 
• Where: At the office
• What: Thank-a-Thon. We will be calling all donors ($5-$50,000) starting this month on a weekday evening that works for as many volunteers as possible. If you're interested in this, please let me know what weekday is best so we can get started!

• When: Sundays, Ongoing (and some other shifts)
• Where: Petsmart, Pinole
• What: Cat cuddling at our mobile adoption site in Pinole

UNUSUAL BUT AWESOME!

• When: ASAP! (Needed by Friday, May 2nd)
• What: Build a prize wheel like this. The link has a whole bunch of versions, but any kind of prize wheel is fine. 

• When: ASAP! (Needed by Thursday, May 8th)
• What: Hack a bike! We need to be able to pedal-power a video for the CatVidFest. Here's one video showing how to make a generator, but we're not picky as long as it works!. 

• When: Saturday, May 10th
• Where: San Francisco
• What: Skip-a-thon! This is a walk-a-thon type event but skipping! The whole world is invited to, well, skip! We'll need some volunteers, but mostly we'll need you to come, have fun, and skip! More info coming soon, but registration now available here.

• When: Ongoing, about an hour a week, spread out
• Where: Home
• What: Write posts for our new blog! We've got the topics, you provide the content!

WAY IN THE FUTURE! Mark your calendars and sign up now!

• When: Saturday, May 31st-Sunday June 1st
• Where: Emeryville
• What: Maddie's Adoptathon! We'll need everything- dog handlers and coordinators, cat handlers and coordinators, basically everyone! So fun, so busy!

• When: Friday, July 4th
• Where: Alameda
• What: We'll be joining Alameda See Spot run in the Alameda 4th of July parade- 3 miles of fun! We may have a mobile, we'll definitely have kids, and it will be really hot and fun :)

• When: ASAP! (Needed by Friday, May 2nd)
• What: Build a prize wheel like this. The link has a whole bunch of versions, but any kind of prize wheel is fine. 

Wednesday is Here!

Hi everyone,

Happy Wednesday! I hope April is treating everyone well!

We had two awesome adoptions this week (among others): Homer, the older lab and Lulu, the senior kitty, who some of you know from upstairs! YAY! We love seeing these guys go home any time of year, but this is especially cool right at the beginning of puppy mayhem and kitten season! If you’re interested in kitten fostering and you didn’t receive an email earlier today, please let us know!

If you’re free this Saturday (the 19^th) and in for a trip to Marin, or already there and want an outing, we’ll be at West Elm in Strawberry Village from 12-3 with a dog mobile and we always love to see you! Say “hi” to Juliet and meet Ashley and Jill if you haven’t already!

We are saying goodbye this week to one of our most amazing and long-term volunteers and fosters, Kathy Taylor who is moving to another state. You may have met her downstairs: she’s responsible for the days that the store room was clean and organized (we take credit for the days that it’s a mess). She’s fostered a bajillion cats and kittens, is an indispensable and irreplaceable member of the “cat coven” and we will not be able to replace her. It’s with great honor that we bestow upon her a Lifetime Achievement Award and wish her and the kitties a safe journey to Arkansas.

Thanks, guys, for all of your hard work!

Best,

Dear all,

This week (April 6-12) is Volunteer Appreciation Week! At Hopalong we want to thank every single one of you (and your families who support you supporting us) for everything you do: opening your home to homeless animals, putting animals on the web, cleaning cages and puppy pee, cuddling cats, handling animals at mobile adoptions, screening adopters, driving, driving and more driving, data entry, making phone calls, making promotional emails and all of the other really important things that I’m unintentionally forgetting! Thank you for making this rescue a success, from staff AND from the animals!

Speaking of staff, we have another new addition- long-time volunteer Jill Oana has joined the team as the Development and Partnerships Director! I’m a little chuffed about this because Jill attended one of the very first volunteer orientations that I ran- I guess that worked out okay! Come say “hi” and introduce yourself if you haven’t met her already- she’s sitting up by the front desk. Here’s what she has to say:

Greetings.  For those of you that I haven't met yet, it's an honor to work with you and the rest of the amazing team at Hopalong Animal Rescue.  I started volunteering at Hopalong a year ago and couldn't get enough so now it's time for me to dedicate all of my time to developing partnerships and new ways to generate funding on behalf of our cherished four-legged animals in need.

Currently, my four-legged daughter is Sheba, we rescued her a couple of years ago and she keeps me quite busy.  In addition to adoring animals, I love bright colors, beaches, pizza, chocolate, movies, historic novels & pondering time travel.  In my previous life, I focused on partnerships, marketing, & business development for startups and global companies and I'm thrilled to make the transition to Hopalong.


The rest of the news isn’t so exciting: I’ve got some creative opportunities on the blog if you’re in the mood for something different! And get ready for May, because we’ve got lots and lots of fun stuff in store!

Best, 

Get Creative!

We've got a couple of creative opportunities for those of you who like to think out of the traditional volunteering box.

First, we're participating in the Oakland Cinco de Mayo festivities with Oakland Animal Services to help promote our humane education program and generally get the word out. OAS has asked us to provide a prize wheel like this. I've posted a "DIY" version on the left, but it doesn't need to look like this. The link has a whole bunch of versions. We've got about 3 weeks to pull this together- the event is on May 4th.

The second event is on May 10th- we're participating in CatVidFest again! We'd like to have a couple of things at this event. We've thought about a looping video that might include adopted cats, cats in foster, some cool stuff about fostering (it's kitten season, so promoting foster would be great). Other thoughts are a coloring sheet or activity sheet for kids and some kind of fun game for adults- we're open!

If any of these interest you, please let me know!

Welcome, Ashley!

Hi everyone! 

Thank goodness it's not REALLY Wednesday, but I wanted to send everyone a quick email, even though it's late. I have the pleasure of introducing Ashley Davidson, our new Feline Program Manager to you. We're really lucky to have her- I've known her for years and she's pretty rad. Hopefully you'll all get to meet her on your next time in the office- you're pretty rad, too, and she's hearing all about you! Not surprisingly, you can email her at ashley@hopalong.org.

Here's what she says:

I wanted to introduce myself to all the awesome fosters and volunteers at Hopalong and to thank you for all that you do for the organization. My name is Ashley and I’m the new Feline Program Manager. I have worked with animals since 2000, volunteering at various animal shelters. I started working in the animal welfare nonprofit in 2011, caring for neonatal kittens, dogs, and cats, and helping with spay neuter clinics. I am very passionate about animal welfare and animal rights! I am vegan and I love to cook and bake healthy things, make smoothies and fresh juices, etc. I love to go camping, go on hikes, and be in nature whenever I can. I also enjoy antiquing and bike riding. I have 2 cats (Old Man and Bat Boy who are siblings and boss me around whenever they can) that are going to be 5 this month.  I fostered them when they were kittens, from a municipal shelter, because their mother was not caring for them and as a result they were not thriving. I fell in love with them, brought them back to health, and could not resist adopting them. I am very excited to work for this wonderful organization and I look forward to meeting all of you!

Thanks everyone, and back to regularly scheduled Wednesday emails, I hope, next week!

Best,

March Volunteer of the Month!

Our very first ever Volunteer of the Month!

Thank you, Rob, for rocking the drives the last 6 months!

Opportunities April 2nd and Forward!

• When: Saturday, April 19th, 12-3
• Where: Pet Food Express in Rockridge
• What: 1-2 dog handlers, 1 transporter to/from

• When: Monday, Tuesdays and Thursdays anytime (ongoing) and some other shifts during the week
• Where: PetCo, Alameda
• What: Cat Cuddling at our mobile adoption site in Alameda

• When: Saturday, April 26th, 12-3
• Where: Fenton's on Piedmont
• What: 3-4 dog handlers, 1 transporter to/from

• When: An evening TBD 
• Where: At the office
• What: Thank-a-Thon. We will be calling all donors ($5-$50,000) starting this month on a weekday evening that works for as many volunteers as possible. If you're interested in this, please let me know what weekday is best so we can get started!

• When: Sundays, Ongoing (and some other shifts)
• Where: Petsmart, Pinole
• What: Cat cuddling at our mobile adoption site in Pinole

WAY IN THE FUTURE! Mark your calendars and sign up now!

• When: Saturday, May 10th
• Where: San Francisco
• What: Skip-a-thon! This is a walk-a-thon type event but skipping! The whole world is invited to, well, skip! We'll need some volunteers, but mostly we'll need you to come, have fun, and skip! More info coming soon, but registration now available here.

• When: Saturday, May 31st-Sunday June 1st
• Where: TBD (Oakland or Emeryville)
• What: Maddie's Adoptathon! We'll need everything- dog handlers and coordinators, cat handlers and coordinators, basically everyone! So fun, so busy!

• When: Friday, July 4th
• Where: Alameda
• What: We'll be joining Alameda See Spot run in the Alameda 4th of July parade- 3 miles of fun! We may have a mobile, we'll definitely have kids, and it will be really hot and fun :)

Cinco de Mayo with OAS!

This Cinco de Mayo we'll be sharing a booth with Oakland Animal Services to promote our Humane Education program!

The event is Sunday, April 4th and we'll be right in the middle of things with some animal control officers and fun prizes. We need at least one volunteer to come talk up the program and before that, a crafty crafter to help us make a prize wheel like this. Let me know if your'e interested!