CCHS Volunteer Newletter
January 2003
Its hard to believe a new year has started! 2002 went by so quickly, but it was a very good year. Everyone did a great job this past year, and your help is greatly appreciated by all of the staff and the animals. Volunteers gave over 8,000 hours to help the animals at the shelter in 2002- all of the shelter staff are amazed by the generosity all of you have shown! We can't even begin to show you how much we appreciate your time!
To everyone that helped outside of the shelter with the events, a huge thank you goes to you. The events would not be possible without your help. We count on your help to make each event successful, and we can't thank you enough for giving your time so generously.
A huge thank you goes to all of the foster homes. Your countless hours are the only way we can help some of the very needy animals. Thank you for your patience and dedication to helping the ones that wouldn't have a chance without the extra attention and care you are able to provide.
Spare time is rare these days, but there are several volunteers that were able put in over 100 hours at the shelter this year. They are Stuart Broz, Lisa Burgoon, Gwen Byers, Sonda Gabriel, Lisa Kelly-Wilson, Bob Martin, Vered Miller and Hayley Smith. Two volunteers were able to give even more time working in the shelter- Nan Holda with over 200 hours, and Brad Hudson with an astounding total of over 300 hours. Thank you again to everyone for giving so much of your free time to the shelter!
Here is the big news of the year: with your help we had a record setting year! We had three record setting months for adoptions this year- August came in with the most adoptions ever in one month with a total of 309. September came in as the 6th best in CCHS history with 291 adoptions, and June is the 7th best with 281. That alone makes it a great year, but that is not the best news.
As many of you may know, Cosmo the cat was a record breaking cat. Cosmo was the 2,521st adoption this year, which broke the record of 2,520 adoptions set in 1997.
The year ended with a total of 2,687 animals finding a new home, and 569 lost pets were returned to their owners. Hopefully we can do even better this year!
The December Adopt-A-Thon went very well. We placed just under 100 animals into new homes during the week of the Adopt-A-Thon. Thank you to everyone who came out to help, I know how hard it was to find the time with finals at the U of I, and with the holidays approaching.
Dogwalkers will be glad to know that Buttons was adopted during the adoptathon- by one of the dogwalkers! Another dogwalker fell in love with Casey and ended up adopting him. Congratulations to both the dogs and the dogwalkers for finding a new friend! Cat Socializers will be very happy to know that Itchy and Ripley finally found their new home last month. After a long 10 months, they were adopted together in December and are living happily in a very loving home.
Along with the Adopt-A-Thon, I want to say thanks again to those that helped with the Gift wrapping at Barnes and Noble on the 21st. We raised over $200 in donations, which I have been told was twice as much as any other organization there this year. Good job to all of you that helped- it was a bigger success than we had anticipated!
There will be an Adoption Counselor Training session in February for those that are interested in becoming counselors. It will be February 16th and 23rd (both Sundays) from 4:30 to 6:30 pm. Space is limited, and you will need to sign up by 5:00pm on Friday February 7th. Please let me know if you would like more information on Adoption Counseling so I can send you the information before the session begins.
I am attaching a copy of the 2003 event schedule. (Webmaster note - see home page) Please note that all dates are subject to change, but I will send out notices for volunteering about 1 month prior to the event. Also note that there may be events added thru out the year, such as the gift wrapping, or pet fairs at Prairieland or Petsmart. I will also send out notices for those as we get notification of them.
I hope everyone enjoyed volunteering last year, whether it was at events, thru fostering, or at the shelter. Please let me know if you would like to try something new, or if you have any suggestions to improve the volunteer experience. I look forward to working with all of you this year.
Julie
Julie Keith
Volunteer Coordinator
Champaign County Humane Society
1911 East Main Street, Urbana, Il. 61802
Julie@cuhumane.org - www.cuhumane.org
(217) 344-9314 Phone &Mac240; (217) 344-7299 Fax