This is what her peers have to say about her:
Sarah created and manages one of the most useful tools for Volunteers and Staff alike, the Dog Diaries. It is a tremendously helpful resource to learn about a particular dog, as well as contribute findings about a dog that may help others. I always consult the diaries to pick a new Little because the Dog Diaries contain all of the info I need to choose a Little who is in most need of a human buddy advocate.
In addition to this, Sarah is a skilled handler, and favors working with what she describes as "naughty teenagers", as well as extremely scared dogs. You'll often find her calmly wrangling in a silly, rambunctious dog, or crouched in a kennel softly coaxing a terrified dog out of his bedroom. She has the magic touch, as well as the skill, in working with all types of dogs.
Finally, she is a foster mom. She and her own dog rehabilitate APA!'s most shy and fearful in her home. She does wonders with them, and it's truly inspiring to watch the videos of their progress that she shares on the APA! volunteer FB page.
On top of it all, Sarah is a truly nice person with a calm, relaxing demeanor that is therapeutic for dogs and people alike. —Heather, Volunteer
Sarah fosters shy or terrified dogs. She works with dogs at the locations, and has written the dog diaries computer program to meet the APA! volunteer reporting needs that are in place. I think she probably does much more and I just don't know about it. She is not one to toot her own horn. —Anonymous
Because she is awesome. She fosters the scaredy-cat dogs, and her dog (Augie) helps with therapy, getting these dogs to gain more confidence. She also takes care of the programming and all sorts of yucky computer stuff none of us can tackle. She is also responsible for making sure everyone is drunk at least once a month. —Titi, Volunteer
Sarah is active on the dog behavior team and a foster, but what impresses me the most are the changes she makes to dog diaries. It's hard for adoption counselors and matchmakers to know everything about each dog and the work she does is absolutely vital to get the information about each dog accurate and gives them a better chance of being adopted. She's added the rating system, custom filters, behavior skills ratings and more. She works so hard and I think it's one of the best things our organization has. —Laura, Behavior Volunteer Trainer
Sarah is a wonderful volunteer and does AMAZING work with the scared, shy, and shut down dogs at both locations as well as fosters in her home. She also is incredible at setting up, maintaining and refining Dog Diaries to make it the best it can be. She's incredible! —Anonymous
Sarah created the dog diaries with constant adaptations for use in new programs like CGC and ratings that help matchmakers choose dogs for families based on their lifestyles. She also set up the volunteer sign in so that APA! can count the hours that volunteers spend on different activities. She also fosters dogs that are completely shut down and gets them adopted. She transports and gives the most amazing advice to people that post on the APA! Adopter and Volunteer Facebook pages. —Belinda, Level 2 Dogs
Sarah wears many hats as a volunteer. She is on the dog behavior training team, fosters many scaredy pups, takes photos and video to help promote them, leads the Big Brother/Sister program and admins the Adopters FB page. She also does the programming for many of the web site functions that volunteers and the general public uses. Among them include the search features on the adopt a pet page that makes it easier to see the animals available for adoption. Sarah has a calm personality which the dogs and people respond to. She and her dog pack have worked their magic in turning shut-down dogs into socialized pups ready for adoption. She's the bees knees and absolutely deserves this recognition. —Karen, Dog Volunteer Liaison Lead
