Animals for Awareness

Dawn

Dawn English began volunteering for Animals for Awareness in July of 2009 after finding us on the internet. She loves playing with the wild kitties, which is a good thing, because one of her tasks is to clean the outside animals, including the wild cats. Dawn also tends to the raccoons, coatimundis and foxes. It’s a tedious job, especially in the winter!

April and Cheech

Back in November 2006 after searching the net for a while, a friend of April’s found Animals for Awareness and alerted her to our existence. April decided immediately that she wanted to help. Knowing she had little money she could donate, she wanted to help out other ways, so she wanted to volunteer and decided she was going to go for it. After contacting Kim, she went for her orientation and has been hooked ever since.

Meghan With a Camel

Meghan commutes to Palos Park from her house in Manteno whenever she has a spare hour or so, which is practically never these days. Finding time for AFA can be quite a challenge for Meghan, as she’s in the Army Reserves and is frequently off to wild and wacky countries for weeks at a time. She also works full time as a firefighter and paramedic. Her plate is overflowing. I did ask her about her future goals and she responded, I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. I’m looking into a PhD program for possible Disaster Management. Can’t I just be independently wealthy and open an AFA II down south?

Kathleen

Meet Kathleen! She’s a spectacular volunteer who started volunteering with AFA in November 2008 at the age of 24 after coming across a volunteer flyer at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills. She read it and was immediately interested! She comes out on Tuesdays or Wednesdays to care for the animals, but you name it, she’s done it! Kathleen is also one of our volunteer trainers and welcomes helpers on Tuesdays and Wednesdays! Although she says that all of the animals are a joy to work with, she admits that 17 year old cougar Goliath is her favorite.

Lydia

Lydia first heard of Animals for Awareness from friends that had attended a local “furry” convention, Midwest Furfest. The convention has a tradition of inviting an animal- oriented charity each year with special events and fundraisers aimed to benefit the charity of choice. “I first met Kim through my boyfriend, who was the charity liason for the convention in 2002. I had heard about AFA from the previous year, but was totally unprepared for the reality.”

When Kim asked the MFF staff if anyone was interested in volunteering as AFA’s webmaster, Lydia happily offered her services.