We LOVE our Volunteers!
Spring is a season of growth. Spring gives up renewed energy with more sunshine and warmer weather. Spring gives us hope for new things to come.
Growth, renewed energy, hope, new things…these are all currently happening with the Volunteer Program at Cheyenne Animal Shelter since January of 2022!
We have had 78 New Volunteer Applications already this year! The majority of those have already gone through our new Orientation, taken AST (Area Specific Training) if they want to work with any of the animals, and jumped into volunteer right away. A large number of our new volunteers are families. I love the idea of families coming together to volunteer. What a great thing to instill in young minds and hearts, the idea of giving back and giving of yourself for the greater good.
We have made several changes in our Volunteer Program that have taken place after Volunteer, Staff and Community input from a survey we sent out in 2021. After looking at the input and doing some research, we came up with our new program. I do believe a program, such as this, needs to be an ever changing creature to match the community, staff and shelter animal needs. It has been wonderful to see and hear the positive reactions we have received since implementing this new program.
The week of April 17th is Volunteer Appreciation. Everyone here at the shelter is so appreciative of our active volunteers, whether they are washing windows, cleaning kennels, walking dogs, socializing cats, helping us transport animals, assisting in the office, reading to our animals…the list goes on. As I walk through our shelter, I also see the appreciation in our shelter animals’ eyes…this is the most rewarding appreciation of all and it is thanks to our dedicated and kind hearted volunteers and staff working together as a “Dream Team”!
It is difficult for me to write this, as I want to put exclamation marks after every sentence. I had to go back and edit them out…my exuberance was glaring a bit too much. Yes, Spring fever has hit me too with this surge of energy in the Volunteer Program.