Around the time my Broadway show announced its closing (I typically make my living as a Sound Engineer) I was approached with an interesting proposal. Pets Alive, a rescue I have long been associated with, took over Elmsford Animal Shelter in Elmsford, NY approximately six months ago - it's now known as Pets Alive Westchester. Since the takeover, conditions at the shelter have improved dramatically - there are no more animals living full time in crates (unless recovering from surgery or illness), adoptions are up, the volunteer program is expanding, the lobby is a happy, bustling, busy place, and they are charting a path to financial self-sufficiency. Still, challenges remain - it's a large place with capacity for hundreds of dogs and cats, and restoring it to its full former glory will take some time.
Pets Alive Westchester invited me to join them as Operations Director, a post I'll be officially beginning tomorrow. I've been helping out for some time in a volunteer capacity - and between that, the holidays, and closing my show, it's been a bit busy around here! I will be joining Joy Sarnelli Carson who began a few weeks ago as Executive Director. I am excited to be working with Joy, a very skilled and talented administrator, advocate, and businessperson.It's going to get busier as I really get into this, and so for the moment I am bidding this blog au revoir - and should it ever return on any sort of regular basis, it will probably be reincarnated someday as one of them fancy newfangled WordPress blogs. Blogger was the hotness when I started this thing in '04 but the world has moved on. It's my hope to add a blog to the Pets Alive Westchester site soon as a place for us to participate in the national conversation on the subject and value of animal welfare.
Please follow my new venture: on Twitter, on Facebook, and on our website. We need your support and your help. I need your support and your help.
Until we meet again.
-J
