Geeking For Good

Well I have been spending some time lately doing volunteer work for a local animal rescue group.. Second Chance Animal Sanctuary. I called to donate some things to their tent sale and got to speaking to Penny, one of their volunteers, and she said something about they didn't have any computer help at the moment, and I said I could help out.. and so I have been. I helped put together a newsletter for them as they had not put one out in a year.. The group has suffered the death of one of their co-founders, the death of another member, and the woman who normally prepares their newsletter was caring for a terminally ill parent and trying to get married... so it was a pleasure to be able to step in and help them. I have donated to them before.. but I knew I couldn't foster any dogs and not really any cats, so I never contacted them... Anyway.. come to find out during this last year they also let their Internet domain expire thus rendering them out in "no man's land" with their website.. So I set them back up and offered to redesign so that we could incorporate some of the latest coding techniques for search engine optimization. Also developing the site to help bring in donations.. Anyway - the bones of the new site are in place and now I just need the embellishments... I think everyone is pleased and I have offered to continue to be their webmaster and anything else I can do for them, computer wise. Which works out well for me because I can do the computer work from the winter home. I am looking forward to volunteering with them and hopefully help them recruit some more volunteers to help with some of the things that need to be done. In fact, the Volunteer Page of the website is high on my list of "to dos"..along with some internet exposure.

I have done my share of volunteering.. My favorite was doing therapy dog work with the corgis through the Happy Tails group in Atlanta. I did that for several years until we moved up to the cabin. I really really enjoyed that.. I found I really liked going into Assisted Living facilities with the animals. It is so hard when you get older and you have lived with animals all of your life and you can't have them anymore. I became friends with several residents and especially looked forward to the monthly visits with them. I try and remind Cap'n Steve that I will come visit him with the animals when he needs to have assisted care... he doesn't laugh...I can't understand why..