RACHEL, ALISHA + POPPA
BERKSHIRE HUMANE SOCIETY
Alisha:
"I started volunteering after I got injured and couldn’t work anymore. I was working with children at the time, and needed something to feel fulfilled. I needed to help somebody. Then Rachel got interested in it, and we started coming together. Now we volunteer once a week, and we’re also on-call."
Rachel:
"I wanted to volunteer because I love dogs, and we can’t have dogs in our apartment. I used to have a dog, but she ended up with my ex, which was really tough. I feel like I gave her up, like I abandoned her. There are so many dogs that need love at the shelter— I figured I might as well go help those dogs since I don’t have a dog of my own anymore."
Alisha:
"When we have a house, we want to adopt our own shelter dog. We figured the best way to get to know all the dogs and find the perfect one was to come help out. We love working together — that’s actually how we met, while on the same job. We just clicked really well. We figured if we could work together, we could certainly volunteer together."
Rachel:
"I come back every week because of the dogs — I just get so excited to see them."
Alisha:
"I want to see them all go home… but I don’t, because I want to come and spend time with them. It’s sort of bittersweet."
Rachel:
"It’s always fun to see the new dogs come in. They’ve all got different personalities, and they all look different, just like people. It feels good to help an organization that needs the help. It would clearly cost too much money to run this shelter without volunteers."
Alisha:
"I know that if we’re doing something like helping with the laundry or taking the dogs for walks, it frees up the staff to actually do something that’s useful, like work with a dog that’s struggling, or work with the public to help get the dogs out. If we can take some of that burden off of them — the little things, the things that we can do — then everybody is working together like a puzzle and we’re all part of the team."