Volunteer High Five to Joe Martino! I want to give a High Five to my Education volunteer, Joe Martino. Joe has been with the Education Department since February 2018. In addition to volunteering as an animal transporter, Joe volunteers with our after school clubs. For almost two years, Joe has volunteered twice a week, every other week, for our Roots and Shoots Student Service Clubs – this means working with the TEENAGERS, mind you :-). During this recent Fall club semester, Joe also volunteered for the Animal Care Club, bringing him to Marin Humane weekly to work with kids!

Thank you, Joe, for your dedication and support of our Student Service Clubs, educating Marin’s youth, and for anticipating my needs during clubs! I am so grateful for your help.

~ Julia Cole, Humane Education

High Five to Lorne Magnone! We wanted to send out a HUGE High Five for our cat adoption volunteer Lorne Magnone. Lorne has been with Animal Care since 2006! He cleans our Cat Adoption area twice a week. However, recently, because we are short a volunteer, he has been helping us out on Saturday mornings as well.

When he’s here he doesn’t just help in Cat Adoptions, he does laundry. And guess who organizes the newspapers we go through like crazy? Yep, Lorne. Animal Care is a happy yet hectic and stressful environment. Lorne comes in here and handles the work and extra shifts without complaint.  When we need extra help, Lorne is the first one to raise his hand. We are lucky to have him.

~ Mary Stumpo & Kyle Dunlop, Animal Care

High Five to Kathie Meier, John and Megan Lorenzen! We hosted two gingerbread workshops this past weekend and they are led by John and Megan Lorenzen, Kathie Meier’s nephew and niece. They bake all the gingerbread from a secret family recipe and donate all the gingerbread and their time. Kathie donates her time and all the fixings to decorate the houses.  Kathie is our fabulous volunteer who works in all our Animal-Assisted Programs with her Bernese Mountain dogs. This is the fourth year we have held the workshops. Since last year John and Megan have moved to Colorado, but they still were here to lead the workshops!

Thank you Kathie, John and Megan for helping kids create a gingerbread dog house or a gingerbread kitty condo this holiday season!

~ Darlene Blackman, Community Engagement

High Five to Michele Harris and Genevieve Walker! These two SUPERSTARS volunteered on Christmas Eve and definitely had their roller-skates on ;). We were only open from 10am-1pm but we still had SIX adoptions. They even stayed late so that the last pup could go home for the holidays. And…they did all of this with a big smile. Michele and Genevieve, THANK YOU for all that you do for us and for the animals & for all of the EXTRA SUBBING that you do – we so appreciate you and couldn’t do it without you.

~ Ruthie & Catherine, Adoptions

High Five to Lorne Magnone! Lorne is one of the “behind the scenes” volunteers in Animal Care that make a HUGE difference to our program! For years, Lorne has been taking donated newspapers, removing all of the glossy ads and other throwaway additions to the papers, then rolling them and rubber banding them so they can be stored and used for the SCA cages and other areas. The sheets we can’t use are recycled.

With all of the recent rain, Lorne noticed that the lid of our recycle bin was not secure and was leaking. Wet paper and cardboard can contaminate a whole container of paper and usually goes into landfill. Lorne brought this to our attention and we contacted our representative at Recology. They were very appreciative to be notified and will either replace the lid to the current bin or replace the whole bin.

Thanks to Lorne’s keen eye and concern for our environment, our recycling efforts will continue to be effective and help our planet! High Five Lorne!!!

~ Anne Oliver, Volunteer Services

High Five to Anonymous Thrift Shop Volunteer! On December 24th, the day before Christmas, the thrift store was open for business and as expected we had a steady stream of last minute shoppers in the store. Well into the day we noticed a 4 pack of LIZZE soda sitting on top of some merchandise. Initially, we thought a customer had set it down while browsing through the store (not the first time this has happened) so we paid it no mind but the store finally cleared and the 4 bottles were still there. Oh Dear!

It turns out the 4 pack was actually 4 bottles of Comforts Chinese Chicken Salad dressing which instantly raised the value 10 fold!! We weren’t sure if the rightful owner would come back but before long we got a call from a frantic customer on the hunt for their misplaced salad dressing. They had gone all the way home to the East Bay before discovering what happened. And even though they were ready to come all the way back to retrieve the salad dressing one of our wonderful volunteers offered to meet them in the East Bay since she was going to celebrate Christmas Eve at a friends house nearby.

So… the tale of the misplaced, highly coveted and dearly loved Chinese Chicken Salad dressing came to a happy conclusion with all parties feeling fortunate and blessed that simple acts of kindness, even some that go above and beyond, are what the holiday spirit is all about.

~ Emi Leeds, Thrift Shop

High Five to Beth Brandes & Sara Gabriel! December is always a busy month for Development. We receive most of our donations during the last month of the year and this year was no exception as we processed more than 2200 gifts including year-end gifts, holiday tribute gifts, eCards, and gifts for the annual pet food drive.

Although the entire Development department lends a hand, we could not do it without the help of our two fantastic data entry volunteers, Beth Brandes and Sara Gabriel. Beth has volunteered in Development longer than any current staff has been here and Sara is beginning her third year with us. These past two weeks have been especially challenging as the holidays fell in the middle of the week and the post office delivered our mail much later and on different days than usual. As an example, on Thursday, January 2nd, we received hundreds of gifts late in the day. There was a sense of urgency since donors were expecting their checks to be deposited and to be thanked close to year end. The reason I didn’t panic was because I knew Beth was coming in the next day. She processed everything we put in front of her, which was a lot!

It is extremely important to have data entry done accurately and we are so fortunate to have Beth and Sara to assist us. Both volunteers are also adopters, donors, and a pleasure to have around. Thank you Beth & Sara!

~ Connie Downing, Development

High Five to Michele Harris and Cristina Battani! On January 9th we had a fun offsite event at Brayton Purcell in Novato – one of our large donors. This was primarily for employees to have some fun time with a furry friend. We sent out a last minute email asking for help loading up animals at the shelter and for help at the event from 11-1p. Michele and Cristina came to the rescue ;)! Cristina was at the shelter bright and early to help load up dogs, puppies and kittens. Michele met staff at the event and helped take care of the animals AND the people. Michele and Cristina, THANK YOU both so much for helping out and being so willing to do just about anything – and all with a smile. You’re both awesome!

~ Patricia, Catherine and Ruthie, Adoptions