The Sate of Washington is honoring Sally Halela with the Governor's Award - Animal Welfare! Earlier this year RASKC had nominated Sally both for this award and for the national Points of Light recognition.
Along with other award winners from throughout the state, Sally will be honored at a reception at the Governor's mansion in Olympia next month. She will also be featured at a pre-game ceremony at the Seattle Mariners' Salute to Volunteers Night on Monday, April 16. All RASKC volunteers are invited to the game; see details below.
The Auburn Valley Humane Society also honored Sally with an award earlier this year for her incredible work in leading the South County Cats organization.
In 2017, as she has done for the past 11 years, Sally led
the way for South County Cats in: (a)
fundraising to provide financial assistance for cat spay/neuter
surgeries, (b) arranging for foster care for under-socialized cats and kittens
to increase their adoptability, (c) assisting with the trap-neuter-return of
feral cats in south King County, and (d) educating the public about feral cats
and how community members can help these outdoors cats coexist in our
environment.
Sally manages the daily operations of South County Cats,
which includes coordinating more than 40 active volunteers, emails, phone
calls, recordkeeping, networking, and providing great deal of cat-care and
cat-related transportation. Last year she transported hundreds of cats to
spay/neuter appointments and then back to their caretakers. She also delivered
cat food to house-bound caretakers in need.
Sally contributed over 2,000 hours to South County Cats
in 2017. In fact, she has donated a comparable amount of time each year from
2006- 2017. Her leadership last year resulted in spay/neuter surgeries for over
33 dogs and over 1,500 cats. Her work also resulted in over 100 animals
receiving microchips. Microchips provide essential data for lost pets being
returned to their owners.
Sally’s enormous dedication, phenomenal skills, and hard
work have contributed significantly to South County Cats’ mission of reducing
euthanasia rates at local shelters. In 2010, RASKC’s live release rate was
close to 52%. In 2017 RASKC’s live-release rate was about 95%, which is amazing
for a government “open admissions” shelter. The work of Sally Halela and South
County Cats helped contribute to that remarkable improvement of more than 40%.
Additionally Sally is a longtime volunteer for RASKC. She has been an incredible animal-welfare volunteer for over 30 years, also helping at MEOW Cat Rescue and Seattle Humane.
Sally has also been volunteering for RASKC sometimes twice a month during 2013- 2017 to assist
homeless RASKC cats temporarily residing at Covington Petco until they’re
adopted. In 2017 Sally donated an
additional 166 hours as a RASKC foster volunteer. She has been taking care of
RASKC foster animals in her home since at least 2008.
Sally was the catalyst for
bringing Pasado Safe Haven’s mobile spay-station to south King County on a
regular basis, as a partnership between RASKC, Pasado’s, and South County Cats.
Sally Halela won the Governor's Award because of her stunning commitment, outstanding accomplishments,
and the prodigious impact her service has made to alleviate the suffering of
cats.
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