The Lori Kauffman Volunteer Of The Month Award

Deb Jacobs is the recipient of the January 2009 Lori Kauffman Volunteer of the Month Award

Congratulations to Deb Jacobs, our January Volunteer of the Month! Deb has been involved with GRRA for about seven years, when she received a phone call on the 4th of July asking if she wanted a puppy! She eagerly agreed and drove halfway across town in the rain to pick her up. The drive back was a little more eventful, it was thundering pretty badly and Maggie jumped and peed in Deb's lap! What a beginning!

Deb has been involved in several ways, she started out attending Adoption Days, the Voicemail Team, and recently started fostering. She is currently the Voicemail Coordinator and is responsible for 21 shifts a week between 18 different volunteers. Deb also fills in when her volunteers aren't available. She loves the interaction with her team and thinks that Voicemail is an overlooked position. She says it is probably one of the easiest within GRRA, but a very important one because it is usually the first point of contact people have within our organization. A lot of the phone calls are straightforward, people asking about dogs or the Adoption Process but every once in awhile you get a disturbing message about abuse or an an owner turn in. But Deb loves her position. She also enjoys attending Adoption Days, she says it is great to see all of the available dogs and interact with the other volunteers. In the last year, Deb fostered two dogs with Heartworm and although it was a challenging experience she enjoyed seeing the dogs get better and better everyday.

Thank you, Deb, for all of your years of hard work and dedication!

Lori Kauffman, who passed away in 2007, was a GRRA™ volunteer who wanted to ensure that GRRA™ continued to do its valuable work. Lori wanted people to know, "Dogs are not disposable. Having a dog is a lifelong commitment. They are an equal part of the family".

If you are aware of a volunteer's efforts that exemplify what is needed to make our volunteer organization survive and thrive, please send a note to volunteer@grra.com. Monthly Nominations are due by the 17th of each month. Click here to see previous award winners.