Volunteers’ Week is a time to celebrate the great work that volunteers carry out for charities across the country.
Dogs for Good is fortunate enough to have the support of 700 volunteers and the wonderful contribution each and every one of them makes to the work we carry out is hugely important. Quite simply, the charity would not be able to operate without their support.
Volunteers are essential to our dog training work; puppy socialisers, brood bitch and stud dog holders and temporary boarders are just some of the key roles. For many of them, looking after our dogs is not a short-term role, but a massive commitment that has lasted for many years.
During the Covid-19 lockdown period, the vital role that our volunteers play in supporting the charity’s dog training work has never been more evident. Over the period of a few days in March, we had to ensure we had homes for all of our puppies and dogs in training and create back-up plans if things didn’t work out for any reason.
Our staff worked with an incredible team of volunteers to set this all up and we are exceptionally grateful for the tremendous commitment that everyone showed towards the charity at a time when we were all very unsure how the pandemic would unfold.
Equally important are the volunteers who do so much to support our fundraising work. They regularly devote many hours of their time to ensure we have the resources we need to continue our work.
There are also volunteers who undertake other essential roles such as driving our dogs around the country when required, supporting our administrative work and acting as Trustees.
During the lockdown period, staff and volunteers have continued to work closely together, using virtual platforms. This has been an interesting and enlightening process and we plan to take some of this learning and use the best of it in our future operations.
Our volunteers have done everything possible to support our dogs during this difficult time. Lockdown is not an ideal situation to be in during the vital timeframe where we want to teach our dogs new skills and be comfortable being in a variety of different environments and the creativity of our volunteers has certainly made the very best of a difficult time.
So, during national Volunteers’ Week, I want to say a huge thank you to all the Dogs for Good volunteers who are so critical to every aspect of the work we carry out. You have all shown a huge commitment to supporting the charity at a time when every one of you will have had significant personal challenges to deal with.
Without you we would not be able to achieve our mission – bringing dogs and people together in ways that are beneficial for both.
Thank you.
Peter Gorbing
Chief Executive