Compassion in Action

Donations Instead of Birthday Gifts
When Kate invited her friends to her 9th birthday party, she asked them to bring donations for the Marin Humane Society instead of presents for herself. On the day of her birthday, January 11, 2012, Kate brought her donations to the Marin Humane Society for the animals to enjoy. Thanks Kate!

The Enzo Foundation
When Kacey Rhinehart saw that one of our adoption cats, Enzo, hadn't been adopted after a couple of months, she started the Enzo Foundation over the Christmas holiday. "We do many sales to raise money for all the pets at MHS," says Kacey. "We are trying to tell people that adopting an adult cat is just as good as adopting a kitten. Kittens grow up to be cats. Why wait? Enzo is the one who gave me the idea to start this Foundation."

 
Heart of Marin: Student Volunteer Award
We are pleased to announce that Rachel Blackman received the Student Volunteer of the Year award by the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership at the 2011 Heart of Marin Awards.

Rachel began volunteering with the Marin Humane Society several years ago, starting as a Girl Scout and continuing through the years in many different ways. From helping prepare for Animal Care Camp and serving as a counselor to raising donations for the SHARE program and helping assemble holiday care packages for its clients. She has created and led tours specifically for Daisy troops for her Silver Award, distributing special event flyers and postcards, proposing a partnership with Drake High School to provide stress-relieving Animal Assisted Therapy sessions during finals week and designing a new Animal Assisted Therapy program for children on the autism spectrum to do agility with dogs, for her Girl Scout Gold Award.

For all of these contributions and her hundreds of hours of dedicated service to MHS, we are proud to announce that Rachel received this prestigious award!

Bake Sale Donation
Casey Laret & Daisy Dalzell-Piper held a bake sale and lemonade stand with all proceeds donated to the Marin Humane Society. They set up shop at Blackie's Pasture in Tiburon. A few hours later they arrived at the shelter with $84 in hand to donate! This idea stemmed from Daisy's family adopting their kitten here, and Casey attending our Summer Camp the week prior. We love to see Compassion in Action!

SHARE a Book Graduation
Students from Good Shepherd Lutheran School in Novato assisted with the training of volunteer teams to become a part of the SHARE a Book program. They attend two weeks of classes to give the dogs practice time with real kids and also help with the graduation ceremony.

Thanks to these wonderful students, and their families, we are able to train more volunteer teams to be a part of the SHARE a Book program!

Quilt Raffle Benefit
Every school year, Laura Honda’s 3rd grade class at Manor Elementary School in Fairfax, along with the help of school volunteer, Harriette Greene, makes a quilt. The goal is to raffle the quilt and donate the proceeds to a local organization that helps either animals or the environment.

After the class chooses the organization they want to benefit, each student takes home a panel and creates a unique piece of art featuring that cause. This year, Mrs. Honda’s class chose the Marin Humane Society. When the quilt is completed, it will be raffled off, proceeds benefitting the Marin Humane Society.

Mrs. Honda’s class has come to our Novato campus to tour the shelter and had special in-class presentations to learn more about MHS and animal care. They have had spirited discussions about the importance of proper animal care, particularly regarding indoor cats. They even got to plant cat grass to take home (clay pots generously donated by Sloat Garden Center)!

If you are interested in purchasing raffle tickets to win the quilt, they can be purchased through the class and through Laura Honda (454.7284). The raffle will take place in January 2012.

Compassion despite allergies
Eight year old Kennedy Sullivan of Novato may be allergic to cats, but that hasn’t stopped her from dedicating a part of her allowance to purchase several items from the MHS Wish List! So far Kennedy has contributed $40 of her allowance to MHS. 

When life gives you lemonade, make a donation!
Charlie, Eva and Ali Smith of San Rafael decided to have a lemonade stand over the weekend. They made $25 and then donated it to the Marin Humane Society. We appreciate their generosity and love to see the Compassion in Action!