Sandi Long Volunteer Spotlight
Sandi Long’s involvement with Furry Friends began in the spring of 2011 when she wanted to adopt another kitty. “The cat I had been interested in wasn’t available, but as I was leaving the shelter a beautiful gray kitty with a white chest and long tail started following me,” she laughs. “When I stopped, he stopped and just stared up at me with his huge yellow eyes.” Sandi decided to sit down on the floor so they could get to know each other. That was the day Sushi found a new home. He is now 16 years old, and sleeps on or next to her pillow each night. A few months later, she adopted a beautiful black Manx kitten from Furry Friends. Vegas is 11 years old and dotes on her brother to the point of annoying him at times!
Sandi’s love of cats isn’t the only thing that drew her into volunteering. “Developing friendships and the desire to help the community is also important to me,” she readily admits. As a volunteer, she was successful in grant writing, acting as board member, co-leading the auction team, and leading Esther Short Park events.
One of her greatest accomplishments, and most challenging, was finding the property that Furry Friends currently owns. “It took more than two years for our amazing sponsor Glen Aronson and me to locate affordable commercial property that the City of Vancouver would approve for a shelter,” she says. “Once we found the property and moved in, more had to be done. The City required us to install a parking lot, sidewalk, landscaping, sprinkler system, swale and drainage system, costing tens of thousands of dollars of unanticipated expenses. Thanks to major donors like Glen and Dr. Virginia Huang, we were able to complete the project after about three years.”
Today, Sandi is a semi-retired volunteer. She enjoys popping in to say hello, and is excited to see how far Furry Friends has come and the thousands of cats the program has saved. “Keep up the great work,” she says. “You are making miracles happen for the kitties and for the people who love them.”
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Furry Friends Volunteer Spotlights are compiled and written by Nomi Berger who is the bestselling author of seven novels, one work of non-fiction, two volumes of poetry, and hundreds of articles. She is a volunteer writer for Furry Friends in Vancouver, WA and also volunteers her writing skills to animal rescue groups in Canada and the USA.
