New Fund Helps Provide Emergency Care for Pets - Animal Welfare ...

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Volunteer of the Year
CarolAnne Nargi
CarolAnne began her association
with the Animal Welfare League of
Arlington in 1996 when she adopted
a cat. Since then, she has become one
of our most valuable volunteers. She
served for six years on the Board of
Directors, but her involvement goes
much farther than that. With few exceptions,
every Saturday and Sunday
finds CarolAnne in the League cat
room, helping prospective adopters
choose exactly the right cat.
CarolAnne gets to know each
cat’s personality and is the resident
expert on making the right matches
with adopters. “I want to help others
experience the same joy I did when I
adopted,” she says. She puts special
effort into finding homes for our older
cats. This job has been more challenging
over the past several years because
the League’s fostering program has
been so successful in saving the lives
of hundreds of kittens. The tremendous
influx of kittens for adoption
makes it even more difficult to draw
visitors’ attention to adult cats. CarolAnne
helps potential adopters find a
cat that fits their home and helps many
of them discover that their best choice
is an older cat.
On Saturdays and Sundays CarolAnne
also works on cat room cleanup,
scrubbing cages, washing dishes,
and mopping floors before the shelter
opens to the public. To bring her
work full circle, CarolAnne makes a
follow-up telephone call to every cat
adopter to find out how each cat is
doing and if there are any problems.
“It is so rewarding to hear adopters’
Pawpourri Summer 2008
CarolAnne gives
TLC to one of her
shelter friends.
feedback and to personally experience
their gratitude and enthusiasm.” She
has written articles for this newsletter
on heart-warming cat adoption stores.
Previous adopters will return and ask
for CarolAnne by name when they are
ready to adopt a new cat.
For the past six years, CarolAnne
has also volunteered at our low-cost
rabies clinics. She prepares rabies
certificates and answers questions
about everything from spaying and
neutering to cat care and dog obedience.
“While I fell in love and started
out with cats, I’ve now branched into
understanding many of the other animals.
There is so much to learn and I
love it!”
CarolAnne has served as chair
of several committees and has been
active in many other areas such as
our two major fundraisers, the Walk
for the Animals and Casino Night.
She is such a dependable presence
at the League that she can easily be
mistaken for a staff member. She
has a thorough understanding of the
League’s mission and reliably places
priority on the mission over her own
personal preferences or concerns.
“When I began volunteering, I had no
idea I would become so involved. But
I quickly recognized the deep level
of commitment the staff and volunteers
feel toward the animals. There
is a strong sense of community, even
family, among this group of people.
I feel a part of that family and hope
I’ll always be able to volunteer for the
League.”
CarolAnne deserves a large measure
of recognition for the success of
the League’s cat adoption program
over the past several years. Her energy
and enthusiasm are contagious to
both staff and volunteers. Please join
the League’s Board of Directors and
staff in thanking CarolAnne for her
years of dedicated service to animals.
In Memory of
Betty From
A great
friend of
animals
and of the
League
died on
May 9,
2008.
Betty
From was
90 years
old. Betty
and her
daughter Leslie Florence were
instrumental in the very early
days of the League. They both
essentially worked there every day,
doing virtually everything.
By the early 1980s, Betty was
a board member and a megavolunteer.
I stopped by the
League one night to return a trap
and Betty roped me into pricing
clothes for the yard sale. She was
inspirational, but she was always a
lot of fun to be around. It was over
20 years later that she came to my
going away party in her wheelchair.
Betty was way ahead of her time
in terms of challenging men and the
establishment and soon she was our
board treasurer. Some treasurers
may write checks and handle the
books, but Betty came down to the
shelter almost every day, her smile
lighting the way. The Betty From
Lifetime Achievement Award was
created to honor her work, though
probably nothing could do real
justice to the years and years she
gave to the League.
Betty was a legend, and it
literally feels like the end of an era.
Linda Willen
Former Executive Director
Animal Welfare
League of Arlington