Volunteers begin return to pet projects in Lakewood Ranch

Every Wednesday at 4 p.m., Panther Ridge’s Stacey Clevenger starts her volunteer shift at the Humane Society at Lakewood Ranch.

She works with Lakewood Ranch’s Liz Lynne and Cindy Jackson to take care of all the dogs at the nonprofit at the time.

The group has been volunteering together for the past seven years and have become close. They even spend time together outside of their shift duties. 

“We celebrate birthdays and Christmas together,” Jackson said. “We show up for each other.”

Jackson, who is also a Humane Society at Lakewood Ranch board member, said the volunteers become family and are crucial to the nonprofit’s ability to function.

Although the humane society started welcoming back volunteers last summer, Jackson said not everyone has returned.

Jackson said there are about 100 volunteers to cover 120 volunteer shifts each week that need to be filled with three to four volunteers each. Volunteers are given shifts to help care for the dogs, cats, run the front desk, manage adoptions and more.

Jackson and Cheryl Johnson, the volunteer coordinator, hope that as more people get vaccinated, more people will want to volunteer.

Jackson said about six people started volunteering again once they were vaccinated.

Clevenger was disappointed when the humane society had to limit volunteers to only board members last March, and she couldn’t volunteer anymore, but she was ready to go when she was called to return.

“I was happy to start right back up where we left off,” Clevenger said.

Johnson said the pandemic has given her an opportunity to spend time training volunteers one on one, which can sometimes work better than training a large group because she can spend more time with each person.

Although Nate’s Honor Animal Rescue has depended on hundreds of volunteers to function, the nonprofit is depending on its six staff members to carry out duties and handle responsibilities while Nate’s isn’t allowing volunteers back due to the pandemic and ongoing construction at its facilities on Lorraine Road.

“Between COVID-19 and construction, it’s just a mess,” said Rob Oglesby, the development director for Nate’s. “I know our volunteers are all missing being here. It’s just like a big family.”

Before the pandemic began, Oglesby said 98% of Nate’s workforce was made up of volunteers, so when the nonprofit had to transition to staff only, it caused some challenges.

The staff is now responsible for taking care of the kitchen and laundry, walking the dogs, caring for puppies and kittens, socializing the cats and dogs and more.

Construction is expected to be completed in September, at which point Oglesby hopes volunteers can return.