|
Back in November 2006 after searching the net for a while, a friend of
April's found Animals for Awareness and alerted her to our existence.
April decided immediately that she wanted to help. Knowing she had
little money she could donate, she wanted to help out other ways, so she
wanted to volunteer and decided she was going to go for it. After
contacting Kim, she went for her orientation and has been hooked ever
since. Once she saw some of the animals she was a bit nervous, but
became very impressed with them. She got over her fears quickly and
jumped in with both feet! April became Lead Volunteer and Volunteer
Coordinator in mid 2008.
April has been working full time for a health insurance company since
2001, and currently lives in Rockdale with her husband Bill, a bearded
dragon named Noah (compliments of AFA), an African Grey parrot named
Diesel (compliments of AFA) a Dumeril's ground boa named Jake the snake
and a minpin named Dee Dee. April says that other than her love of
animals, she's pretty boring and only really enjoys quilting.
When asked what her favorite memory is she responded, "When Kim fell off
a ladder and hung off the side of a large, tall cage like a tree frog!"
She also will never forget the two times she had to assist in bringing
cougar Goliath to the vet!! She admits those were scary times!
There is just so much that April loves about coming out. She loves the
one on one interaction she gets with most of the animals, that AFA
strives to give the animals love and enrichment rather than just feeding
and leaving them, and that AFA educates people about these animals. The
programs are also her personal favorite. In fact, April is now doing
many of the educational programs on her own. She says the looks of awe
on people's faces when she take some of the animals out is worth it.
She's learned so much about the animals since she's started and is
looking forward to learning more and even teaching others to do
programs. There are times when there are projects that need to be taken
on and April loves to take a hold of them and get them done. When there
is something that needs an improvement she is always there to make a
suggestion on what she thinks will help. Her personal favorite critters
here are Juneau (our youngest Canada lynx), Tallulah (our youngest
kinkajous), and our cougar Goliath. We don't have to worry about April
getting hurt by any of the animals since she is a bit of a clutz. We
just worry about her hurting herself on cages, tools, trees, projects
etc... :) April rates as one of the MVV's on our team - MOST VALUABLE
VOLUNTEER.
|
