Top Dog and Cool Cat Volunteers of the Month

Each month I would like to take the opportunity to highlight a Network volunteer (or two!) that have gone above and beyond the call of duty, have put forward a really interesting idea, or have done something else to really stand out.

By Brandi Bennett, Best Friends Network Staff

Since I can see that this will be a rapidly expanding topic (as it should be!), and because I know that other Network volunteers would like to be able to congratulate these volunteers as well, I will be starting a forum in this community to highlight these folks. Each month will be a new topic, and I'll let everyone know about the good works of our volunteers.

For this month, however, I'm taking the route of congratulating everyone, simply because so many volunteers have done amazing things this month and it's impossible to pick two (or even three) out of my list for special recognition. (I'm sorry, but it's true! You're all just too fantastic!)

We've had team leaders pulling their teams together, providing local support, dealing with tough issues, putting together Weeks for the Animals, taking on bigger leadership roles, recruiting new volunteers, and coming up with ways to thank staff for their hard work.

We've had news writers jumping in to cover big stories on short notice, helping out other communities, researching our 2008 focus areas, and doing a wonderful job tackling stories that deal with some difficult topics.

We've had new volunteers leaping into their positions feet first, being willing to help out wherever they're needed, and doing a great job of enthusiastically beginning their work as well as asking some very insightful questions about how they can make their communities even better.

We've had forum moderators coming up with new exciting topics for their communities, branching out to help other communities with forum content, and monitoring some delicate topics, as well as continually seeking new ways to get community members more involved.

Lastly, our resource specialists have done a great job of making sure that community calendars are full, adding links that are being requested by Network members, and providing more and more links to their community members.

So, a big thank you to everyone for all of your great work! It's an amazing feeling to look for a couple of volunteers to highlight, only to realize that I have set myself an impossible task because so many of you are doing such a wonderful job. The amount of talent, enthusiasm, determination, and dedication that each one of you possess and bring to your position is what makes this team great!

Photo courtesy of Best Friends Network Volunteers