The V2 Crew got some dog and cat love at our recent volunteer shift at the Oregon Humane Society.
A few weeks ago, the V2 crew was excited to once again volunteer at the Oregon Humane Society! The Oregon Humane society is our favorite animal shelter because they do amazing work around the state and the nation in getting animals adopted, and offering training and behavioral classes, which help ensure each person adopting an animal from OHS has all the resources they will need to give their dog or cat or other small animal the best home possible! They also offer a program called Spay and Save, which provides low and no-cost spay/neuter surgeries for cats owned by low-income residents in the greater Portland metro area.
In 2018 alone, the Oregon Humane Society has had 10, 542 animals adopted, with a goal of 11,000 by the end of the year! Because of their amazing donors, volunteers, adoption policies, veterinary care, and their Second Chance Program, OHS is a no kill shelter with an adoption rate of 98%! Their adoption rate is higher than any other shelter in the state, by far.
The OHS relies on a network of over 2,000 volunteers to care for the animals on everything from cleaning kennels/cages to dog walking, maintenance, socialization, adoption services, veterinary care, and training. As part of our group volunteer work, we were tasked with socialization (petting and exercising) with the dogs in the outside yards and the cats in the colony rooms. The socialization with the volunteers helps the pets get adopted faster and provides much needed attention.
We met some adorable new furry friends including Buster, pictured below, a sweet collie mix who loved to be pet and to eat some delicious homemade treats provided by OHS. Buster has been at the shelter for a few months due to a torn ACL. He is such a sweet boy, and we know he is getting amazing care and love from the staff at OHS. V2 Owner Tania Mayer also adopted a new furry friend of her own! She and her family had been thinking about adopting a kitten, and during our visit, Tania fell in love with an adorable orange tabby, that her and her family have named Waffles! Waffles and their dog Abby (who they adopted from OHS as well) are best friends! We are so happy Waffles found a home with Tania.
Keep up the amazing work Oregon Humane Society! We can’t wait to come back soon for some more furry cuddles.
Jessica Bradford | V2 Event Manager
Erin and Rufus playing with some toys and goofing around!
The V2 Crew was thrilled to volunteer recently at the Oregon Humane Society, Oregon’s oldest animal shelter, that was established back in 1868! Being a company of animal lovers, we were very excited to work with the volunteer staff at OHS to help with socializing the cats and dogs up for adoption. At our orientation, we were surprised to discover that OHS is one of the oldest shelters in the country, and that over the years, the facility has become quite state of the art – with a full medical facility and veterinary staff, as well as a behavior center where OHS behavior specialists work to train dogs so they can be adopted into a forever home. One of the biggest reasons animals are brought to the Oregon Humane Society are due to behavioral issues. With their partner network and amazing volunteers, OHS has become a no kill shelter that works to get every adoptable animal a loving home. In 2015, roughly 97% of cats and dogs brought to OHS were adopted. OHS offers training classes and one on one private training with your pooch on everything from basic manners to animal assisted therapy. They also offer many free workshops for the community. All of the training classes and workshops are offered by Certified Professional dog trainers.
The V2 Crew was proud to volunteer our time this last week at one of our favorite non-profit organizations – The Oregon Food Bank. V2 believes this is a very important cause because Oregon in particular is a very hungry state where roughly one in six people are food insecure, meaning they do not know where their next meal is coming from. In fact, the OFB states “ 270,000 people per month eat meals from emergency food boxes, which is about half of Portland’s population, and of those, 92,000 are children. Since the beginning of the Great Recession of 2008, emergency food distribution has increased by 41 percent.”
The Oregon Food Bank provides emergency meals to those in need by using a grass roots or community approach – they rely heavily on local volunteers, partnerships and donors to provide nutritious meals to people in Oregon and SW Washington. They are one of the most innovative Food Banks out there with their Fresh Alliance Program, which provides perishable food like meat, dairy and produce to the hungry. According to OFB, “Since it’s inception, the program has kept 16 million pounds of food from being wasted and has become a national model.”
This quarter, V2 decided we wanted to give back to our community by helping a cause that means a lot to us. That is why we decided to volunteer at the Oregon Food Bank. We learned during our volunteer work that 270,000 people per month eat meals from emergency food boxes. It was an eye opening experience to learn how many people in Multnomah and Clark County would go hungry without organizations like the Oregon Food Bank. The food bank relies heavily on help from their volunteers to get the food out to the food banks for people to be able to pick up. In 2013, volunteer hours at the food bank were equal to 74 full time employees, valued at $2.4 million dollars.