Volunteer Update

This fall has been a busy time for volunteers with the Cocheco Valley Humane Society. We started everything off with one of our largest events of the year, the Paws Cause Road Race. I had the privilege of meeting many of the fabulous volunteers. We had approximately 60 volunteers set up, serve food, give massages, cheer on the kids and grown up runners, work registration, break-down, warm up the runners and the list goes on. Our next event following on the heels of the race required 65 volunteers to sign up to represent the shelter at the Rochester Fair. Our volunteers kept their high spirits in less than aesthetically pleasing conditions. The following weekend, let's not forget, was the Dover Apple Harvest Festival. The younger volunteers pulled this event off by painting over 400 children's faces and letting the children "fish" for prizes. The event was a huge success and we all had a great time.

Last weekend we held our First Annual Fall Cleanup and let me tell you it was quite the success. We had a crate crew, dog food storage crew, dog treatment room crew, one woman cat isolation crew, a lobby crew, a trailer crew, a one woman cat incoming room crew and a two-man grounds keeping crew. The volunteers were moving and shaking. I believe we will definitely be doing this again! On the same day as the cleanup we had one of our first offsite adoptions (part of a new program) with veterans Kristen Riddlestone and Kris Spencer taking it on the road to Wal-Mart in Somersworth. The offiste adoption was huge success with ten animals being adopted!

Well, what do we have to look forward to after all of this excitement? Oh, plenty more. October 30th is the 15th Anniversary of the CVHS and the Halloween Howl. We have top costume judges in the state coming to the Howl! We still have slots for volunteers to participate in during the Halloween Howl and the Anniversary. In November we will be looking for volunteers to go to JCPenney with volunteers who are currently active in our Visiting Companions proram, for our annual Oranament Sale. Then we move onto our Annual Craft Fiar at the Holy Trinity Church in Somersworth, which will be on Saturday, November 27th, so mark your calendars.

Currently the volunteer program is creating a foundation. Several committees are being started such as a website committee and a newsletter committee. We are looking for volunteers interested in forming these committees. We will start actively recruiting volunteers for Saturday night Bingo at the Dover Bingo Hall. If anyone is interested please contact me at the shelter at 749-5322 or email me at the shelter at [email protected] or [email protected].

I would like to thank all the volunteers for their generosity the past couple of months! I would also like to thank all the foster volunteers woh assisted in raising several homeless litters of kittens until they were ready for adoption.