Volunteer

It has been said that Volunteering is not for the faint of heart!! It requires dedication, reliability, learning, and committment. In some cases it also means using one's own resources, such as a tank of gas, to complete "a mission"!

Photo: volunteers getting
ready to help out the Alberta
Animal Rescue Crew Society

When you volunteer you give part of yourself, your time, your energy, skills and feelings. You give to your family, friends, as well as your neighbors and the community. Volunteering is a connecting experience. It can be a one-time event, or become a life-time activity.

The act of volunteering is a self-less one, allowing us to gain new skills, new friends, and a new perspective. Being a volunteer gives us warm fuzzies inside as we recognize the difference we make.

Many of you know the story of the starfish on the beach.....a young woman was walking along a beach in the early morning, throwing as many stranded starfish back into the ocean as she could. A man walking by chided her, saying she was never going to be able to help them all so what difference was she making anyway.... She replied that it made a difference to each individual starfish returned to the ocean....

At AARCS, we believe that each volunteer who contributes by fostering, helping at the Farmer's Markets, doing research, becoming a cash can coordinator, and the myriad of other jobs we need to do, makes a huge difference in the life of a rescued pup/dog, cat or kitten. Our passion is to rescue the little ones who are not protected by the SPCA, and to see that the ones still in the communities are fed. We need lots of people to help in order to grow and be able to rescue effectively and efficiently.

Some Volunteering Stories

This photo was taken after "the crew" unloaded two truckloads of donated food, on the hottest day so far! Thank you so much! All your efforts really help the dogs and pups.

Thanks also to our very generous "food" donor. We are very grateful.

Last Thursday(in August 2006)the coordinator got a call from our major donor, who chooses to remain anonymous, that lots of food needed to be picked up. There are angels who sometimes appear, and Thursday, our angel was John, who was picking up food about 1 hour after the phone call. The next day, he volunteered his trailer and arrived with the rest of the "goods" at the coordinator's home. Along with much help from our new volunteer Bev, who does the Farmer's Markets with the coordinator, all the food was unloaded, and tarped against the weather.
A huge thankyou to John and Bev for all the hard work, and a huge thankyou to our food donor. The donated food is used for our foster system, and to make sure hungry dogs in the First Nations communities are fed.

A dedicated volunteer from Trochu made a beautiful display for AARC which was put on display by Communities in Bloom in Trochu(2007). We won first place in the non-profit division! Our prize is a gift certificate to a local store, where we will buy supplies for AARC. click here to larger images.

February 2008 Food Drive

Our food coordinator, Katie and her mom drove to Edmonton to pick up a large donation of food from Maddie Natural Pet Products in Edmonton. With Katie's persistence we have been able to maintain a steady stream of dog and cat food to provide to the communities we visit on a regular basis.

Since September 2007 when Katie started volunteering with AARCS, we have handed out over 10,000 lbs of dog food. This allows the dogs who are waiting to be rescued, to be well fed until we can return for them. A big thank you Katie and her family for the numerous hours of driving, not to mention the manpower needed to move this much food. In addition, they have offered to store the food for AARCS until it can be distributed.

Below left: storage room before food run Below right: storage room after food run

Please contact one of the AARC Members for more information or to become a volunteer with our organization.