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Home
> Out of the Cage! > February/March
2005 > Volunteer Spotlight: Volunteer…and Make Your
Minutes Matter!
Volunteer
Spotlight
Volunteer…and Make Your Minutes Matter!
How many hours a week, or a month, do you spend
on activities (or doing nothing) just to fill the time? Have you
thought about how those "wasted" hours could be put
to good use to help NYC's homeless animals?
We have! And we have plenty of suggestions on how
you can transform your "down time" into vital, productive
time! For example:
Volunteer
with your local shelter or rescue group. You'd
be hard pressed to find one that isn't in need of people like you
to walk dogs, cuddle cats and kittens, transport animals to their
new homes, or any number of other activities necessary to keep the
organization running smoothly.
Volunteer
with the Mayor's Alliance. Opportunities abound
for you to put your time and talents to work to help us, and in
turn help our participating organizations (APOs), increase adoptions
and save lives. Here are just a few examples:
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Foster
a cat or dog. Oftentimes an animal needs some
time in a quiet home to recover from surgery or adapt to being
around a human family before being adopted into a permanent
home. By fostering an animal, you can provide that pivotal
link between rescue and adoption, and enjoy the rewards of
sharing a very special time in an animal's life. |
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Help at adoption
events. Perhaps your schedule doesn't allow
you to commit to an on-going volunteer routine. No problem!
Volunteers are always needed — and appreciated —
at adoption events in the city's parks and other locations.
You can help set up the event, staff a table and distribute
literature, talk to people about shelter adoption and spay/neuter
issues, or help out as needed and spend an afternoon with
the animals.
One especially plum event volunteer assignment
we'll need to fill for each adoption event provides you with
an opportunity to wear the fabulous
Maddie costume. Thanks to the Maddie's
Fund grant, we have acquired a human-sized dog costume
that we'll need a volunteer approximately six feet tall to
wear at every Mayor's Alliance Pet Adoption Festival. So let us know
if you'd like to "audition" to be "Maddie for
a Day," starting right away! Among the upcoming events
for which you can volunteer are:
Dog & Cat Adoption Festival
April 9, 2005
St. Paul's Church, Manhattan
Earth Day
April 22–23, 2005
Grand Central Station
Mayor's Alliance Adoption Festival
April 30, 2005
Astoria Park, Queens
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Help with
feral cats and TNR. We'll see that you receive
the training you'll need (at a Neighborhood Cats Workshop)
to get you started assisting any one of the TNR
groups around NYC.
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Volunteer
in the Alliance office. Now that the Alliance
has an official office location, we'll need help with administrative
tasks, such as assembling literature, entering data on the
computer, filing, and other such activities.
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Put
your special skills to work. Perhaps you're
a fundraiser, grant writer, or PR professional, or particularly
skilled at developing filing systems or film archives…or
maybe you're a graphic designer or writer…we can use
your help!
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Volunteers set up an adoption
booth at the Cat Fanciers' Association/Iams Cat Show
New York AdoptaCat
Day adoption event in October 2004 at Madison Square
Garden. |
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Whether you are currently on our volunteer roles
and haven't yet found your niche, or you've considered volunteering
but just haven't gotten around to doing it, please contact us at
janell@AnimalAllianceNYC.org, or complete
an online volunteer application. We look forward to talking
with you about volunteer opportunities with the Mayor's Alliance
or with an Alliance
Participating Organization.
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