Volunteer of the month - June 2023

This month we are celebrating Andrea Stangeland

a photograph of Vokra Vancouver, Volunteer of the month for june Andrea S sitting on a bed with a black cat.

Andrea has been an enormous part of VOKRA since 2011 ...She volunteered a lot at my home, where we were before moving to our present building. Without her help, I would not have lasted.  Caring for cats, calming incoming cats, driving, going to capture cats no one could get into a carrier. We often went to do nails or fluids in foster homes when the cats were hard to handle and often went out to work together at getting foster cats out of a ceiling, a fireplace, or from under appliances. Once, it was a seagull, trapped in a window well! The whole time she became increasingly involved in putting together forms, working on protocols, working on the IT team, building and designing the new building, running adopter support.. basically so much and too much! The mind spins at it all.  Oh, she took on hard-to-manage semi-feral cats to foster and home and led the Behaviour team.  We miss her very much. 

Karen Duncan, Co-Founder, VOKRA:

How did you start volunteering with VOKRA?

I started fostering in the summer of 2012.

How long and in what capacity have you been volunteering?

I started helping with events and doing administrative work for the foster team in 2013, helped set up the original foster website, and then helped with the renos on the Ops centre when we moved. I’ve helped out at the Ops centre since then, both with cats and building improvements and in various administrative roles.

two photographs of Andrea S, Vokra Vancouver BC Canada, Volunteer of the month for june 2023 holding a seagull wrapped in a blanket and another enjoying some laughs with another volunteer.

I took on the adopter support email in 2017 or 2018 and onboarded a few volunteers to take over a couple of years later. I was doing IT problem-solving for several years and helped with the migration from our old database and email services to Google Workspace and Shelterluv shelter management software in 2019, and managed the IT team from 2020-2022.

a photograph of our June volunteer of the month, Andrea S working hard to make Vokra Vancouver the best it can be.

I was supporting adopters of cats with behavioural issues since 2018 and supporting fosters of cats with behavioural issues since 2020. I built and managed the socialization team from 2021- March 2023 and I served on the Board of directors from 2021-2022

What is your favourite part of volunteering?

Working with fearful cats.

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