Chris Nash has been volunteering in some capacity with Furry friends for the last 10 years! She and her wife, Jean, started out as kitten fosters after being introduced to Furry friends by their neighbor, Kathy Peirce (another FF foster). After three foster fails (adopting their fosters) they realized that wasn’t their calling. During that time Chris worked as a project manager in the picture framing industry. In 2018 she left her job of 34 years and started her own business as an art installer, hanging artwork in commercial and residential spaces. This led to her volunteering to head-up the large yearly auction with Diane Stevens and also pick up a “shift” on Mondays at the Half way House.

When asked to tell us about what she does on her shifts she said, “as well as a shift of deep cleaning on Mondays, I also try to take care of an item or two, when time allows, at the Halfway House. For instance, replacing the wire screens on the doors, adding door latches, springs or door pulls/handles, painting the shelves to the catio windows, installing hand sanitizer dispensers, etc. I’m handy and like to share whatever skills I have to lend.”

So if you see a project happening at Halfway House, Chris is usually there with a smile on her face and a tool in her hand!

Chris said her favorite part about volunteering is knowing that the cats will find a forever home and that she is a part of that during their transition. She said, “We can’t save the world by ourselves, but we can be a part of the bigger picture by banding together and adding what we can to the Stone Soup Pot!  Furry Friends is a great example of this.”

Her love for cats doesn’t stop at Furry friends as she has eight cats at home that she cares for! They are mostly rescue cats or cats that have simply found her. They must have known her house was the right place to go to get help!

A local challenge she is passionate about is just creating less of a carbon footprint and being compassionate and kind. She also loves to garden and design spaces. No wonder the Furry Friends Halfway House is looking so good! Chris Nash is a valuable asset of Furry Friends and everything she does is greatly appreciated!

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We would like to thank Jenn Hutchman for writing this spotlight. She has been volunteering with Furry Friends for a couple years and has been an amazing contribution to our team. She has fostered over 50 cats and kittens so far for Furry Friends, and not just the easy ones. She has fostered several bottle baby kittens that require feeding every two hours and has taken on some of the difficult medical cases like Monnie. She also is the lead person for our email/voice mail team, plays a significant role on our medical team and has done a number of other tasks including fundraising. For 2020 she put in about 570 volunteer hours for Furry Friends. We are so grateful for all she does.