Volunteering story with 'Schnauzerfest'
Nicole Isselbacher has been volunteering for a charity – Schnauzerfest since 2019. They help raise awareness of dogs from bad breeding backgrounds (like puppy farms and others), but also pay vet bills to rescues and support adopters and fosterers too. Nicole explains:
"4 out of my 6 dogs have been supported and helped by Schnauzerfest. I started following them on social media in 2019, and soon after offered to help out. It started with help on social media to now where I run the Facebook charity shop, attend events to raise awareness and take part in fundraising campaigns."
The more Nicole got involved and found out about the horrors of puppy farming and how most dogs will come from that background, it's opened her eyes that education needs to happen and she started taking on an ex- puppy farm survivor. This has now grown to 3 ex-puppy farm survivors and 1 dog who was meant to be put to sleep because their owner died and there was no provision in their will. Nicole said:
"We also help out owners with the cost of living crisis as many adore their animals but can’t afford the vet bills. Schnauzerfest can provide grants to help. We are only a small charity of volunteers and I'm proud to contribute my two GC volunteering days towards this charity, but my support goes much beyond this. I could talk forever about this. Helping and volunteering has massively helped me gain new skills, network and make connections."
GC's volunteering policy, Volunteer2day, allows you to take up to two days leave in any one-year rolling period to volunteer. To find out more, visit the Volunteering Opportunities page on Our Working Way.