I am so excited about this year at PAWS. I had my first 2 days of actual work there on Thursday and Friday. And now that I've had more time to get everything sorted out, I now have somewhat of an idea as to what my duties will be at PAWS.
First off, I am a Level 1 Volunteer in Dog Town and Kitty City. I really want to be at least a Level 2 by the time I am done...which I don't think will be very hard to accomplish. After serving 36 volunteer hours, you are able to take Level 2 training classes. I've already spent 16 hours in Kitty City just the past 2 days, so I think I will get to 36 hours in no time! They have different levels of volunteers because there are some cats and dogs that are more challenging than others. I don't think there can be a Level 3 Volunteer in Kitty City... Anyways! As a Level 1 volunteer, I have a variety of duties. Since I work 8 hours a day, my mornings are usually taken up by cleaning the different cat rooms. The rooms are ridiculously clean, but it is that atmosphere that helps get so many pets adopted! If it smelt terrible and there were stains everywhere, people wouldn't come into the center. I don't mind cleaning the rooms. It is almost like a race against the clock! We have to be ready to open the doors to the public at noon and often PAWS doesn't get weekday morning volunteers. That means it is up to me and the Vet Tech (the one I've been working with is Erin and she is amazingly nice!) to clean all 9 rooms. Some of them are really big! After we clean the rooms, we just have to socialize with the cats. Some of them are really scared because they are confused, so we just help make them feel more comfortable so people will want to adopt them. Finally, we help people who come into the center to adopt a pet! In order for people to go into the pet rooms, they have to take a survey and once they have that survey we (being the volunteers) take them into the specific cat/dog room and let them interact with the animals. On Friday I helped 4 cats get adopted and it was awesome! I haven't actually volunteered at all in Dog Town, mostly because Kitty City gets fewer volunteers and I want to make sure the help is evenly distributed. But mostly the responsibilities are the same, except you also have to walk the dogs.
Aside from Level 1 Volunteer duties, starting in October I will be the Family Service Program Manager. Basically, the Family Service Program is a volunteer program for kids between the ages of 12 and 17. They can sign up for specific times (usually Saturday and Sunday from 9-11) to come to PAWS to volunteer with their parent or legal guardian. The person right now who is in charge of FSP took on the duties a year and a half ago because there was no one else, but now they are giving the assignment to me! I am really excited to have more responsibility than just being a typical volunteer. I might have some other exciting tasks at PAWS, but nothing is set in stone yet. Also, I will ask about taking pictures of the center and posting them on my blog when I go into work on Thursday. It is a beautiful building and looks nothing like the typical adoption center!I can already tell that I am going to spend way more than 16 hours a week at PAWS. I absolutely love working there! I am supposed to work from 8:00-4:00 but I think I've been there until at least 5:30 each night. Whoops!
On Saturday we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo! Its a free public zoo here in Chicago and it was a lot of fun. We (and by we, I really mean I) vlogged about it! I am going to edit that....hopefully within the next few weeks and get that up on our house's vlog channel! I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend! Stephanie and I are going to go watch Chicago, which seemed like an appropriate choice!
First off, I am a Level 1 Volunteer in Dog Town and Kitty City. I really want to be at least a Level 2 by the time I am done...which I don't think will be very hard to accomplish. After serving 36 volunteer hours, you are able to take Level 2 training classes. I've already spent 16 hours in Kitty City just the past 2 days, so I think I will get to 36 hours in no time! They have different levels of volunteers because there are some cats and dogs that are more challenging than others. I don't think there can be a Level 3 Volunteer in Kitty City... Anyways! As a Level 1 volunteer, I have a variety of duties. Since I work 8 hours a day, my mornings are usually taken up by cleaning the different cat rooms. The rooms are ridiculously clean, but it is that atmosphere that helps get so many pets adopted! If it smelt terrible and there were stains everywhere, people wouldn't come into the center. I don't mind cleaning the rooms. It is almost like a race against the clock! We have to be ready to open the doors to the public at noon and often PAWS doesn't get weekday morning volunteers. That means it is up to me and the Vet Tech (the one I've been working with is Erin and she is amazingly nice!) to clean all 9 rooms. Some of them are really big! After we clean the rooms, we just have to socialize with the cats. Some of them are really scared because they are confused, so we just help make them feel more comfortable so people will want to adopt them. Finally, we help people who come into the center to adopt a pet! In order for people to go into the pet rooms, they have to take a survey and once they have that survey we (being the volunteers) take them into the specific cat/dog room and let them interact with the animals. On Friday I helped 4 cats get adopted and it was awesome! I haven't actually volunteered at all in Dog Town, mostly because Kitty City gets fewer volunteers and I want to make sure the help is evenly distributed. But mostly the responsibilities are the same, except you also have to walk the dogs.
Aside from Level 1 Volunteer duties, starting in October I will be the Family Service Program Manager. Basically, the Family Service Program is a volunteer program for kids between the ages of 12 and 17. They can sign up for specific times (usually Saturday and Sunday from 9-11) to come to PAWS to volunteer with their parent or legal guardian. The person right now who is in charge of FSP took on the duties a year and a half ago because there was no one else, but now they are giving the assignment to me! I am really excited to have more responsibility than just being a typical volunteer. I might have some other exciting tasks at PAWS, but nothing is set in stone yet. Also, I will ask about taking pictures of the center and posting them on my blog when I go into work on Thursday. It is a beautiful building and looks nothing like the typical adoption center!I can already tell that I am going to spend way more than 16 hours a week at PAWS. I absolutely love working there! I am supposed to work from 8:00-4:00 but I think I've been there until at least 5:30 each night. Whoops!
On Saturday we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo! Its a free public zoo here in Chicago and it was a lot of fun. We (and by we, I really mean I) vlogged about it! I am going to edit that....hopefully within the next few weeks and get that up on our house's vlog channel! I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend! Stephanie and I are going to go watch Chicago, which seemed like an appropriate choice!
the background is kinda blurry...that's better.
ReplyDeleteYAY! Blog! PAWS sounds really fun. Maybe I should volunteer there instead of getting another cat.
ReplyDeleteKat-- PAWS is awesome! You should definitely volunteer there. I absolutely love it. :)
ReplyDelete