LifeLine Pawsitivity Partnership
The lifeline Animal Project is a community hero by reducing euthanasia and finding homes for dogs and cats and offering support for pet owners unable to provide adequate veterinary services and food for their pets. Our partnership with LifeLine included 7 key planned activities totaling 18 separate events that support and contribute to the success of LifeLine and service to our community. This effort included 79 volunteers from Buckhead Rotary and their guests, and over 25 volunteers from LifeLine, Open Hand, and Boyce Ansley School.
We assisted and sponsored LifeLine “Healthy Pet” events at which 1,810 animals were provided 1,248 microchips, 4,255 vaccines, and 1,711 free Spay/neuter vouchers.
Many of the dogs and cats end up in shelters due to the inability of the owners to afford to feed them. Therefore, our team drew upon our previous partnership with Project Open Hand. Using LifeLine funds earmarked for pet food, we adopted the Open Hand software for efficient delivery routing to identify and deliver to pet families unable to afford to feed their animals.
The successful adaptation of this food distribution system has allowed us to provide 60-70 deliveries every month, offering 7500 pounds of food to 150 dogs and cats. The project has become so successful within our club that we often have more volunteers than distribution routes. In appreciation of their support and guidance, when we do have an excess of manpower, we reroute volunteers to Open Hand to deliver meals to their clients.
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| Leveraging Innovative Community Partnerships: As we deepened our relationship with LifeLine and internalized the reasons behind their efforts to support owners and would-be owners of pets, we realized that we had two natural partners in assisting LifeLine: The Boyce Ansley School, a current Buckhead Rotary Signature Project, and Open Hand, a previous Signature Project. The Ansley School is a tuition-free, private school that provides a stable educational base for unhoused students and their families. Because of the therapeutic connection between children and animals, we were able to work with students to develop an art project to create decorations for dog and cat crates. LifeLine also brought a dog to the school to highlight the organization’s work and to introduce the concept of fostering or adopting a dog from an animal shelter. Open Hand cooks, packages, and delivers 1.4 million meals annually to those who have medical problems, are unable to cook for themselves, or are otherwise in need. Their computer application, which creates delivery routes for their many volunteers, was a great fit for our LifeLine initiative. We adapted it to help us determine how to deliver dog and cat food to pet owners who cannot afford the food necessary to retain their pets. Open Hand has also allowed us to use their new manufacturing facility as the point for our volunteers to pick up the food that they deliver. Together all three organizations have furthered the objectives of LifeLine to better serve the pets in the Metro Area |