Why do you think volunteering in the community is good?

Humane Society volunteering?

• Hello Fellow Animal Lovers. I have been volunteering at my local humane society to help with my aspergers (talking disorder). At the beginning of this year, I would have panic attacks at the very thought of talking. I have been volunteering at the humane society by a school program, and a lot have changed for the better. I made many mistakes in the first week or two of working there, but I have been doing all the tasks recently without any trace of mistake and I am learning much much more. We have a small facility and I do my best, so far, I clean all the cat cages every morning and try to assist in cleaning dog cages and keeping the facility clean within the two hours I am there everyday. I had participated in a few fundraisers last year and helped raise $500 for the humane society and I was proud of it, but once the weather starts to get warmer after December, I want to try and do more. I have tons of free time, literally hours of free time after doing homework. Other than reading and writing, I am usually on the computer or out trying to find animal groups and other events that can help benefit animals at the humane society. I have had a few ideas how to help but I will only mention a few since I would not think of introducing more than one at a time to the shelter and overburden myself in work. My first idea was to ask if I could help make a Facebook fan page. I would be making this fan page to keep people aware of important events, adoptions and I would be taking pictures of the animals to post on there and Petfinder if they would allow me too. I would perhaps update the pictures every two weeks) and write a small blurb about them. I will probably take part in another fundraiser at the humane society group in our high school, but the reason I ask about the fan page and Petfinder is because, they do not have a great website. I do not think they have any people helping to maintain the website and update it, nor do they have people that can help with Petfinder or fan pages. It is either that, or they have decided against them, but I do not think that is the case. The way it sounds like to me from what I've seen is that they are not able to maintain them at this point in time without any additional help from volunteers or other people. In addition to the Facebook fanpage and Petfinder ideas, I've been helping train new volunteers and community service people when the management haven't been around, so I don't have direct permission but will ask for it soon. From what I've heard, I did a superb job of teaching previous people so I hope that goes well. I have been both polite, patient and concise. I seem to be one of the most knowledgeable here a the shelter, which I imagine is not rare because there are not many jobs here and more often than not, people have to work at the first place they can find. I'd thought I could help answer customer questions, I've been reading for a few hours everyday and been gathering in a lot of information about animals that could aid in answering questions that have stumped the management and employees. What do you all think about a fan page and Petfinder? I know they have used Petfinder and had a Myspace page until they quit them for some unknown reason. I am good at computers - as far as design, functionality and other things go, so that is why I thought I could help them. I would like to know other people’s thoughts on the fan page and Petfinder. The training new volunteers idea and helping customers is another step and milestone to help my communication but I will wait a bit on asking that question, of course, I don't even know if I need permission so I might need your thoughts on that as well.

• Answer:

  Honestly petfinder doesn't seem to be that big, if you have the time and approval great. Facebook though is a great idea. The shelters in my area do it and it really gets the word out. We don't usually have to put dogs down but this terrier had been in there forever, was getting depressed, and they needed more room. Gave him x amount of days, and posted on FB that he was running out of time. 2 days later he was adopted. People click share, takes 2 seconds and your adoptable animal is being spread like wildfire to people in the area. Great idea.