HSGKC Enewsletter

Vol. 3 Issue 4

Volunteer Highlight:
Chuck Williams

Chuck at the shelter with "Harvey"

Chuck Williams is a HSGKC volunteer and avid animal lover. Chuck has three dogs of his own, two pure bred Whippets and a Mix. The oldest of the three is a therapy dog that Chuck takes to a nursing home on Sundays.

Chuck has previous experience working with other rescue groups and one day decided to come to a HSGKC orientation to see if he would be interested in working with the shelter. Since his orientation in December 2006, Chuck has been a volunteer.

During the day Chuck is an accountant, but every Saturday he volunteers at the shelter for a couple hours. His schedule at work allows him the time to volunteer. “I’m fortunate in that I don’t work crazy hours,” Chuck said.

Usually, Chuck walks the dogs and helps get them ready for satellite adoptions, but lately he has been working in the exercise yards trying to fix some muddy areas. No matter what task he is doing, Chuck enjoys helping out the shelter and has fun doing it. “I enjoy being around animals and animal people.”

"Andy" is now safe in our shelter while he waits for his forever home.

New Partnership with
Animal Control Saves Lives

As a Humane Society volunteer you know the importance of spaying and neutering to help control the pet overpopulation. Each year, more than 20,000 pets in our community are euthanized simply because there are not enough homes available. Through a new partnership with the KCK Animal Control, pets are now being adopted from the KCK facility already spayed and neutered. Before this partnership, many animals were being adopted through KCK Animal Control without being spayed or neutered.

Currently, we are spaying or neutering up to eight animals a week from the KCK Animal Control in our preventative veterinary care clinic. This helps prevent animal overpopulation and increases the likelihood of the animals being adopted.

Another perk to this partnership is we now know what animals are at the KCK facility. Our front desk staff has been able to refer several adopters to the KCK facility when we’ve not had the specific breed the adopter is seeking. We’ve also been able to pull many of the animals from the KCK facility that were marked for euthanasia and transfer them into a no-kill rescue group or intake them into our own no-kill shelter. You may have even met a few of these pets – Puffin, Chelsey, Nina and Andy.

Sign Your Pooch Up
for Dog-n-Jog

Online registration is now open for the 20th Annual Dog-n-Jog, being presented by The Sheraton Suites on the Country Club Plaza. Visit www.dognjog.org to register online or to download a paper entry form to mail in. When you collect $50 or more in pledges your Dog-n-Jog registration is waived.

Dog-n-Jog is 7-10:30 am, Sunday, June 10 on The Country Club Plaza. Events include: 2-mile run, 2-mile walk, 1-mile run and 1-mile walk. Enjoy canine agility demonstrations that you can watch or participate in with your dog, a micro chip clinic, free doggie cones from Sheridan’s Frozen Custard, pet grooming sessions and more!

Welcome New Volunteers!

Please help us welcome our newest volunteers: Dylan Otte, Sherri Wells, Scott Baer, Linda Jackson, Lindsey McIntosh, Jennifer Katneiser, Lyndsey Butter, Reina Barr, Anita Small, Travis & Lynn McMinnville, and Donna Turner.

Our next volunteer orientation class will be 10 am to noon, Saturday, May 12th at the shelter.

Get Involved

• KC Pet Expo: It's not too late! We still need your help at this year's Pet Expo!

This year the Pet Expo will be held on April 28th and 29th at Hale Arena, near Kemper Arena. We need volunteers to help with the general information booth and the Wheel of Fun. Shifts will last 3-4 hours. Once your shift has ended you get to check out the event for yourself if you would like. If you are interested in helping contact Jo at 913-596-1000 x 22.

The Kansas City Pet Expo is an educational event that many animal rescue groups and vendors attend to help inform people about their products and adopt out animals.

• Dog-n-Jog: We are looking for people to volunteer Sunday, June 10 to help with registration, the raffle table, prize table, being course monitors, race/walk cheerleaders, and help setting up and tearing down. Volunteer times vary depending on assignment, but cover 6-11 am. Dog-n-Jog is being held on the Country Club Plaza. Email Rachel Downtain if you want to volunteer.

The Dog-n-Jog event is also in need of a golf cart and prize donations. We will even pick them up! If anyone has one, please contact Jo at 913-596-1000 x 22.

• Mailings: Join one of our upcoming “mailing parties” where volunteers come to the shelter and prepare bulk mailings. Volunteer duties include affixing labels to brochures, tabbing and sorting pieces by zip code. We’ll be preparing mailings the week of April 30-May 4. Call Jo at 913-596-1000 x 22 to sign up or for more information.

Bowling for Bones!

Don't have Cinco De Mayo plans yet? Well, now you do! Bowling for Bones is a benefit for the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City Medical Equipment Fund at Mission Bowl, Saturday, May 5. Registration begins at 5pm and the bowling fun is from 6pm-9pm. The libations will be flowing along with prizes for the funkiest bowling outfit and a raffle drawing.

Event registration is $40 per person and you can pre-register at www.active.com. Please email Christine Salyer or call 913.238.4526 for questions or registration assistance.

We Need Your Help

The Humane Society needs your help in raising money for the no-kill shelter. Through this year’s Dog-n-Jog event any volunteer can help the animals by setting up an online fundraising web page through www.dognjog.org. When you do this it will help raise the money needed to buy dog and cat food, keep the animal areas heated, cooled and cleaned and provides medical care.

Setting up your free webpage is simple and collecting pledges is easy and secure! (You do not have to participate in Dog-n-Jog to set up your fundraising web page. We are making this available to all of our animal-loving volunteers.) Contact Robin at 913-596-1000 x 14 if you have any questions.

Without You,
We Couldn’t Do It

As a volunteer and donor, we want to thank you for being a part of the animal welfare efforts in our community. Without your support we would not be able to spay/neuter 6,000+ pets and save 1,000+ pets through shelter activities each year.

The Humane Society staff and board truly appreciate your selfless efforts to help the animals here at the shelter. Many of the volunteer activities are far from glamorous and often can be downright dirty. Please know that only through your passion and dedication are we able to fulfill our mission to save and improve the lives of dogs and cats throughout our community.

We've Been Adopted!
You won't find us hanging around the shelter anymore because we have forever homes!