 Aloha and welcome to Hawaii's Volunteer Champion here on ThinkTechHawaii.com, program where we talk to people who work for nothing. What's with that? People who give up their most valuable resources, their time and their effort for some cause or other. Why do they do it? What do they do? So we're going to talk to some people from the Hawaii Humane Society today. Before I start that, this is the first program we've recorded since the incredible tragedy on Maui, the death of Lahaina, really, and of well over a hundred people now that identified clearly that there's still some thousand plus who are missing, we've not accounted for. So it's an incredible tragedy. We're going to see worse. And when we talk about volunteers, there are hundreds of people volunteering to help with this tragedy and donating money, which is very valuable, but also putting in time and energy. So our hearts, we're heart-stricken and our thoughts go out to the people of Maui. So with that, let me introduce Lindsey Kipnes, who is a volunteer with the Hawaiian Humane Society. Hi, Lindsey. Hello. Thank you so much for having me. Oh, it's a pleasure. And we also have Brandi Shimabukuro, who is the communication manager or the manager of communications, whichever you like. And she's with us from the Humane Society as well, aloha. Aloha, Peter. Thank you so much for having us. Absolutely. And full disclosure, I am a volunteer at the Humane Society as well. So let's jump right in here with you and tell me, what do you do for the Humane Society? Yeah. So I've had several roles since I started volunteering about a year and a half ago, but currently I am first and foremost a foster parent. I typically take on young kittens, which is especially important during kitten season. So anywhere I specialize in kittens, usually about eight weeks and under, they need to be in homes because they are the most susceptible to being sick. They usually come to us with a lot of diseases, medical issues, and we kind of take care of them to get them healthy, to get them up to the right weight so that they can then get spayed or neutered and then go up for adoption. So they're really our most, you know, our most needed foster parents are for like these really little ones that need to get out of it. In addition to that, I also volunteer on campus at Hawaii Humane Society, currently with the foster team. I go in at least once a week for shifts and I help them with whatever is needed from bagging up new food and litter for foster parents to pick up to doing discharges of foster animal, really whatever is needed to support the very small team that's there. In the past, I have also volunteered directly with the adoptions department as well as a dog walker on campus. Just started with the adoptions department and I used to be a dog walker until then I found that the dogs were walking me instead of me, the dogs. So I moved on to a little more indoor work. So why did you change from one to the other? What led you to go from I assume walking or adoption department into fostering? Yeah, of course. Well, I started, my first thing that I started as was a foster parent at home and I've been fostering the entire time. But I started on campus as a dog walker because I mixed having dogs in my life. I've previously volunteered with dog rescues and I wanted a way to get some exercise as well as be with the dogs, but also wanted to use volunteering as a way to socialize and meet people that were like-minded. And dog walking was a great way to do that, but because of some of the time constraints around it, it really just didn't fit into my schedule as well. And I moved over into the adoption department, which is a department that I have volunteered at and other rescues as well. I find that working in adoption is really rewarding. You get to talk to the people a little bit more and you get to help the people find their animals and it's like the happier side of working for a shelter or rescue, as I'm sure you have seen starting to volunteer there. And then a couple months ago, I actually started volunteering twice a week. I had some extra time in my schedule and the volunteer coordinator had specifically asked if I was interested in working with the foster department and I was like, you know what, I'm going to go twice a week, like let's try out something new. And really also to understand what the back of the house Hawaiian community looks like, you know, I mostly just worked in front of house and seeing how the available dogs are doing, how the adoptions work. And so it's been a really eye-opening experience to understand like the behind the scenes workings of the shelter being in and around all the butt stuff, seeing how the foster program really works, not just from accepting the animals, but figuring out how their process and how people are paired up with animals and all of that. So it's been a really good way to just get to know the whole organization and recently I had to go back down to only volunteering once a week, but hopefully I'll be able to volunteer in both adoptions and foster coming up. So you talked about time commitments, but isn't fostering kind of like 24-7? You know, we've got a picture, I think we can show of having, of hand feeding these little bitty animals, I mean isn't that a big time commitment? It is, yes. Fostering is a very big time commitment depending on the animal that you take. So if you're bottle feeding the really little new needs, that is around the clock. I have only bottle fed weaned kitten, so that was feeding every four hours that they were able to go overnight without a feeding. So that was great, but for me it's not much added, it's like, you know, maybe I spend 30 minutes total cleaning throughout the day depending on how messy they are, but otherwise the kittens are really just like a fixture in my life, like a normal animal would be. I don't have any of my own pets, so we're able to really focus on our foster animals. And so I don't feel like I'm actually spending 24-7 with them, and I love it. I work from home, I work remotely, and it's really what forces me to step away from the computer and take those mental health breaks and remind myself that what are we doing this for? It just brings me and my partner so much joy to have little kittens running around our home and to have something to pour our energy to, and to be able to see how much we're able to do for them and the community. That's terrific. Brandy, let's bring you in here, and I imagine among the many different kinds of volunteers the Humane Society needs, fostering is one of the harder ones to get people to do, is that correct? You know, you'd be surprised, there are a lot of people who want to provide the gist of their time, right, and as Lizzie has mentioned and as I've learned now as also being a neonate foster on the side, on top of my day-to-day job, it is a significant time commitment, but it is extremely rewarding and extremely fulfilling. And there are people who absolutely answer the call for that, which isn't to say that we don't have a need, right? When it comes to kitten season and cats are warm-weather breeders here in Hawaii, obviously, that's your round. So we are, we do have an influx of cats and neonate kittens as Lizzie has mentioned, almost a year round. So there's always a need for more, and it provides and it leaves some space within our foster volunteer network to have a little bit of a breeder so it doesn't feel like a torrential tide of a constant barrage of kittens that you have to take care of, right? That many hands, you know, help to ease that burden. But as you've heard, and obviously as you've seen, she was a dog walker and an adoptions volunteer, we have all many diverse roles within this organization. And Hawaiian Humane Society at its heart is the volunteer organization. We have nearly a thousand active volunteers who are supporting the day-to-day operations of our Mo'ili'ili campus, and we will be actually bringing online more volunteer roles to support our new Crissaza family campus at Holopili and of a beach. But it ranges, right? It's not always front-facing for those who would prefer to be behind the scenes. We are always looking for laundry volunteers, for facility support volunteers, you know, admission support, even administrative support, and on our development team, we're going to be bringing online for it in the next couple of months for those who are extremely gifted on the photography side. We are always looking for photography volunteers and we're going to be bringing that role online soon. Because the way that our animals are presented on our website is often the first peak at a potential adopter, right? That helps to get them that much closer to finding their loving home. So finding people who want to come out and take some fantastic headshots of our wonderful adoptable pets is really important. And that's really key, right? Every volunteer role is important. Last fiscal year, we had close to 100,000 volunteer hours total that supported the operations of the animals in need here on Oahu. And we could not function without that community support from our volunteer Oana. And people like you and Lindsay are just giving the gift of your time. And it's so meaningful. I hope that you find it as fulfilling for you as it is for me as a volunteer on the side. Just for animal welfare, right? I will tell you, first of all, when I tried dog walking, I got walked by the dog. And my first day as an adoption volunteer, and I'll be very frank, it was harder than I expected to walking around Moeilele campuses. It's kind of like a rabbit's horn over there. And I enjoyed it. I loved it. But I found it. I got home and I was pooped. But so I'll begin better shape for next time. But we have some photos. I think we could show some of those now. Dog walking is big. Do you have a rough idea how many dog walkers you need in a day, in a week, in a month? You know, ultimately, the need ultimately depends on the number of animals in our care, right? And the sad reality with Hawaiian humane and shelters across the nation are that we've been overcapacity for dogs. Because people are reinforced to have to make really difficult decisions at the cost of living. And the lack of affordable pets-friendly housing are just so prevalent here. But I think what I really want to instill here is that dog walking is a critical function of enrichment and exercise for the dogs in our care. The reality is that a home environment is the best place for any animal to be. So the shorter amount of time they're here in the shelter is better for them from a physical and mental well-being state of mind. But while they're with us, our dog walker volunteers, they fill a critical role because they're providing that enrichment, that break from a kennel, that little bit of exercise and mental stimulation that helps to make it a less stressful environment and less anxiety inducing, right? So at the really, really important role for the health of our animals here, obviously we have dedicated animal care specialists who are also filling that role. But having that extra level of support is just really important for animals indeed. And as you've demonstrated, because there's so many diverse role, finding the right fit is for what your skill said. And honestly, what your time commitment is as well is something that we're happy to accommodate. Lindsay, you've done three different roles there. And I take it you're happy. You're pretty happy with the fostering. But would you recommend the other kind of jobs? Yeah, I mean, definitely. I kind of had the same reaction with you with dog walking. It was very strenuous. And I am quite petite. And sometimes I just having not had a kind of experience walking larger dogs who just don't have the training of how to walk on leash, sometimes they were walking me. And so I think it's definitely a great way to get in your puppy fix if you want to walk dogs. But it is a lot of work. But I would definitely also recommend it. I love working in adoptions. That to me were a lot more if you want to be people to people, which I love to do as well. And one of the other reasons why I really enjoy adoptions is getting to work with the staff. And that's one of the things that draws me back every week to Hawaii Marine is that the staff is just so incredibly friendly and fun to work with. And you know, fostering as well is kind of the same thing. I just I like to have the variety in it. I do I am very actually personally even interested in seeing what some of the other admissions volunteering sounds really interesting. Sometimes they take volunteers with the vet staff as well to learn that by. So I think it's just a great way to you can test it out, do a couple like three to six months and in a bunch of different categories and see what works with your schedule and your skillset and who you really connect with and feel like you're doing the most good. So for me right now, that's working in foster, but I'm hoping come as kids even slows down, maybe I'll be able to go back to adoptions a little bit and get to be with those people and those animals again. Do the puppies get fostered too or is it just kittens? Yes, it's puppies as well. It's any animal that's going to be not available to go out for adoptions. Yeah, they're typically looking for foster. So puppies under eight weeks or like dogs that have any physical ailments for any reasons. Like they've they've got some medical reasons why they need to be on hold for a while. We have some amazing puppy fosters who take on full litters and sometimes bottle feed. And, you know, I think kittens sometimes is a lot when you've got three of them running around destroying your bathroom, pooping everywhere. But puppies are just so much work. So they definitely are always, I think they get less of them in, but if you're looking for puppies they definitely do have that and need people on call for puppies as well. That's a great point, Pierre, because the, you know, Hawaiian Jemaine is the only open admission shelter here on Oahu. And what that ultimately means is, is that if somebody is just not able to provide for care for their pet anymore, they come and bring them to us and we take them in. And they, these animals might, they're coming from very diverse backgrounds. We're relying on the finder or their owner to tell us what information we have. We can, so we can, you know, find the best match for them, whether it's medical care, foster or if they're available for adoption. There's a lot that goes into the animals that are brought to us before they're even made available for adoption. We vaccinate every single animal that comes to us for whatever species that's specific to them. But what's really key here is that there are animals that are coming to us who need a significant amount of time to recuperate from surgery, right? Well, Hawaiian Jemaine does not euthanize for space or time. And so that's why the foster network is so critical because we don't, we obviously have a finite amount of space even across two campuses now. So, and again, like I mentioned earlier, the best place for them to thrive is to be in a home environment. And that where even a temporary foster home is ideal. So we'll have neonate puppies or kittens. We'll have full-grown dogs or cats or rabbits or organic pigs who are recovering from surgery. And we actually have our foster care team has an incredible resource. It's an internal, what we call a Trello board. It's like a bulletin board that's updated in real time where the needs are for any specific foster animal are posted and it'll tell you what, if they need a certain type of lifestyle or home to thrive in, if they need a specific time commitment. So you can foster basically what you're able and what you have to bend within resources to provide. Let's spell out something you said and elaborate a little bit because I think people want to know. Or you said no animal is euthanized for space or time. Tell us what that means exactly. You know, there's a perception of animal shelters that will have a certain time limit, right? If an animal gets surrendered to us or if they're brought to us as stray that they only have a certain amount of time with us before we have to free up kennel space. And so they're automatically euthanized even though they're an adoptable healthy animal. Hawaiian Humane does not do that. We don't do it for space limitations. We don't do it for time limitations. There are really only specific reasons why we would and it's almost, it's always for the quality of life of the animal, right? So if they have an untreatable medical condition, if there are issues with capacity for care or if it's just to your behavioral issue that cannot be modified or corrected and that would basically create a public safety risk. But those decisions are always difficult to make there are multiple different operational teams that are weighing in on those decisions. And it's always for the benefit of the animal and the quality of life that they would have later down the line that's taken into consideration. Thank you, that's good to know. I think that gives people an assurance about surrendering their pets or bringing an animal, a feral or animal in and knowing that they're not gonna be gone for any of those reasons you mentioned only for behavior or for illness that can't be solved. So Lindsay, going back to you for a moment, I would think, I've never fostered but I would think after however many weeks of fostering a kitten or a puppy giving up that animal must be our wrenching decision. What's it like? It is so hard. We're actually giving up our foster currently tomorrow, so I'm about to hit that. You fall in love with all of them in different ways and you learn different things from every animal that you take in to your care. But for me, the goal is always goodbye because if I can pass on my foster, my current foster, then my home is available to take anyone and it's become even more clear to me that this is important in volunteering with the foster department because I can now see how many animals are in the shelter waiting for foster homes. And so it makes it that much easier knowing that like, okay, well, there's 50 cats currently waiting at it. For example, there's like 50 cats waiting to be coming out for foster. So by being willing to give my two kittens back, I'm able to then take the ones that need it. Now, you can always adopt. I am currently in a position where my apartment is a little bit hard to separate this space to be able to have a resident animal as well as take on the litters of kittens that I do. And so it's important to me that we continue to adopt, but it doesn't get any easier, but it's always worth it in the end and the best way to fill that little kitten-shaped hole in your heart is to take anyone and the foster team is always obliging. So as long as you clean your space really thoroughly with the right material, they will literally when you hand your kitten in and they clear their vet shack, they're like, okay, would you like to take some more home today? So they're willing to really push it on you there if you're willing to take them. And usually I take a couple of days in between to clean everything and give my heart back in the right place, but there's always someone else in need. And so it makes it just that much easier and it's great. I love it. Was there ever a kitten that you were glad to give back, that it was such a little nuisance, such a little pisser, a scratcher, a claw? Was there ever one that you said, I'm glad this one's going back, I'm gonna give another one? I will, yeah, we had a couple of those. Usually it's just because they start to escape the play ponds that we tend to keep them in and are running around the house. We did have one kitten that had a couple of behavioral issues that we were struggling to deal with. He was just really stressed out. And I don't think that we were the right home for him anymore. He needed to be with another cat in a different environment. And so when we were able to give him back and he actually got adopted within like a week. So it's always a happy ending there. And I would still felt like I learned a lot. We had a medical condition and we actually had him for quite a while because he had to have two different surgeries. And so it was really cool to like learn to foster that. But I was also very happy to let him move on to the next cycle of his life and the next stage and let him find his forever. And just to be clear, if you're fostering, you have certain supplies that are needed. Are those your financial responsibility? Does your main society pay for the food and whatever the things that are needed? Yeah, so Hawaiian Humane will provide you with as much as they can. Typically it's going to be like all of the basics. So food for kittens, it's through litter, litter boxes and scoops and then play puns. If you have really little ones, boys, they'll provide all of that. I have personally expanded what I wanted for them and I've had people giving to me as gifts, some other stuff. But the more important supplies they do provide and for me also the most important thing is all the medical care is fully provided by Hawaiian Humane, especially because that is what is ultimately I think the most expensive and the most stressful part is being able to get to the vet on time when you need it and providing the medicine that is needed to help the cat get to a point where they can then be adopted into their own. And let me ask you a tough question. If there's anything you would change about the volunteer program, I'm not asking for you to diss anybody or anything. But if you could change anything, Brandy's here listening, taking notes. Is there anything you would change or is there something you would wish were done differently? Oh, I don't know. No, you know, I really love it. I see there's reasons why they have certain structures the way they do for consistency. Like it is a three month minimum when you start. But once you become a really consistent volunteer, they are able to be a little bit more flexible if you're going on vacation, if you're willing to make up shifts with my time constraints, like I'm able to kind of shift certain shifts as needed. Maybe some different shirts. I'm wearing my volunteer t-shirt right now. It's a little bit thick for the Hawaiian keep. But I will say I did realize that, you know, I think one of the reasons they do it is everyone's in a green shirt and the dogs recognize that people in green shirts are good and will walk them and have treats. And so dogs that you've never met before will come up to you because they like, they see the colors and they know like, oh, this is someone that is going to be helping me. But yeah, you know, I love all of volunteer staff and I think they're really great and how the program is running. I'll tell you that I agree with you about the t-shirts being thick. And I assumed that it was because they're going to be washed to death. But anyway, that's terrific. Randy, let me, we've only got a few more minutes. We do have a couple of pictures more to show. And one of the things to say to notice is not all, quote, glamorous. You know, there's a lot of behind the scenes work. We have one of the pictures from the laundry. You guys go through towels and quills and whatever, you know, like a hotel, because you are a hotel after all in a certain kind of way. What are some of the other behind the scenes roles that people can play? You know, laundry's incredible. And it's, we have some really unsung heroes there because like you mentioned, it's not, it may not be glamorous, but it's really critical because sterilization and cleanliness is really important for the health of our animals and to mitigate disease where skin spread, right? So there's that. We also are always looking for facility support. So if you are a handy person and want to dedicate your time to beautification, whether it's landscaping, general, you know, facilities upkeep, that sort of thing. We have facility staff who is a small but mighty team and are always looking for support. Anything in the administrative side. So if you would love to help out our development team on fundraising, if you would like to dedicate your time for administrative supports, dispatch also has volunteers that work 24-7 as well as our paint staff. So it's really just that extra uplift to support the staff that are here and do some other little tasks that help to really make the organization really run. All right, that's great. If somebody wants to volunteer, maybe we can show a picture of the happy group of volunteers that we have. If somebody wants to join this happy group, I didn't realize that you had 1,000 and 100,000 hours. How does somebody go about joining up? They can sign up at hawaiyehumain.org. We actually have different roles and different places that you can sign up there. We also have an interest sheet for those who are interested in volunteering at our New Crosalda family campus in Elba Beach. But all of that information is there and they will get trained. We have a pretty significant training protocol as I think you are both aware of. Both hands-on and virtual training. We wanna make sure we're providing the best tools for everybody to succeed here. Terrific, thank you hawaiyehumain.org. Just see and you can also find all the animals that are available today there. So I recommend you going there. Lindsay, thank you. Any last words of advice for people who are thinking about doing this? Just jump in and get involved and you definitely won't regret it. With the animals and the people, any position that you can volunteer at will definitely be valued. And I think that we gain out of it just as much as we do. That's terrific. Thank you so much. Lindsay, thank you for what you do and thank you for spending this half hour with us. Brandy, same to you. I know you're getting the big bucks for being here but thank you very, very much for doing that. And I will see you around the campus because I'll be back there. We always end the program with a quote or a thought about what it means to volunteer to give back what generosity means. Here's the quote for this week from Muhammad Ali. And he basically talks about giving back what we pay for living on this planet which I think is a profound and beautiful thought. And the world wouldn't operate without volunteers. So we're very grateful to all of you. I know, kidding aside, you go above and beyond. I saw that little creature. I think that you have taken home, Brandy. And if that's not a full-time job, I don't know what is. So thank you both very much. It's really been a pleasure. Thank you to my two dedicated listeners. Maybe there are a few more as we keep moving forward but we're gonna be back in a couple of weeks talking about why people volunteer and what they do and what the possibilities are and how important it is. So thank you both again very much and see you around the Molyli campus. Aloha. Thank you, Peter.