Redwood City nonprofit organization giving back

“They’re learning how to give back to a community and how important it is and what you’re getting back by paying it forward. So job skills, they help give deworming with our veterinarians who go out once a month. They are filling out the paperwork for the rabies certificates. So they’re learning a little bit of the job skill as well. So I think we’re impacting their lives pretty significantly,” Marsa Hollander, programs director at Pets in Need, said.

She started the program after getting a call from someone with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office who asked if some teens could do community service. She started a group where they talked virtually and discussed ideas they could do virtually. Then the program grew from there with now 27 members.

The project they’re working on now is raising money, food and supplies for the homeless encampments in San Francisco for their dogs. Once a month, the organization brings its veterinarians and also partners with an one-man nonprofit called Project Open Paw.

Hollander reached out to Paint the Void after learning it was painting murals on wooden buildings that had been boarded up because of the pandemic, with its mission to beautify San Francisco. It started in April 2020 to support artists and the communities through crowdfunding by bringing art to the boarded-up businesses. 

“We thought maybe we’d do a few in the beginning. And we were just blown away by how many people donated and wanted to see the art come up,” Lisa Vortman, Paint the Void co-founder and director of media, said.

It gives grants for artists to paint murals on boarded-up businesses or other projects.

“We noticed that during the pandemic, when the artists were painting, so many neighbors just showed love and excitement and interest. And so that’s how we knew that the community mural projects were going to be a really fun aspect to Paint the Void,” she said.

Professional help

Paint the Void raised the money for artist and muralist Joe Colmenares to come out and lead this community mural project.

“This particular project is dear to me because now Pets in Need is shifting gears and now they’re focusing on the young people, the youth and they’re teaching young people how to be empathetic and how to care for animals, how to train their animals and also how to become leaders in their community. And that was a great intersection for me, bringing in the art,” Colmenares said.

He started painting as a tagger in San Francisco, painting graffiti throughout the streets including Bayview, Mission and Fillmore. He started doing graffiti art for The Boys and Girls club in Columbia Park. And through the organization, he got a scholarship to the Art Institute of San Francisco. He returned to the Boys and Girls Club after and worked as an art director.

“The passion for working with young people kind of kicked in while working at the club,” he said. “And so that was the pivotal moment where I decided we need to do art to empower people, especially young people, to build up the confidence and the knowledge that they can connect and network and then thrive and do what they love doing.”

In March, Pets in Need had closed down the two shelters. It got all the animals out and into foster homes. It kept minimal staff to keep the place clean and allow fosters to come in with the animals for medical service. And it was able to keep the staff on payroll throughout this time.

Al Mollica, executive director of Pets in Need, said it was hard to sit still during this time.

“Our impulse, everything about us is saving. Hey, let’s go get some more animals. Let’s bring them in,” he said. “We’re still not back. We made lots of adjustments. You talk about what has COVID done. Lots of our protocols have changed. It used to be we were open for adoption seven days a week. That stopped a long time ago. I don’t know that we’ll ever go back to that. The days of having, you know, 30, 40 people milling about, they’re over.”

Community partnerships

The organization has been able to find many ways to partner with other organizations and connect with the community, especially with the teen ambassador program.

“I just felt like we needed to be more integrated with the community and be more of a resource for the community than just a place to go get a dog or a cat. This is how we’re doing that,” he said.

Marielena Romero started shadowing at Pets in Need when she was 13 years old. She now works there as a programs assistant and is currently studying to be a vet tech at Foothill College. She helps run the program events such as birthday parties, camps and the teen ambassador program. She also assists on the San Francisco trips where she’ll draw the vaccines, check temperatures and write the health checks.

“It’s not just the animals, it’s the youth that brings these programs to life. And definitely working with pets in need has pushed my career path,” she said. “And I think we just want to keep pushing that and getting more people into the programs department and basically just have a safe house for teens.”

Azeel Buksh who also works as a programs assistant helping run events, humane education camps and more has been with Pets in Need for five years.

“My mentality definitely shifted from animals to the youth and trying to give kids an opportunity to find out what their passion is,” he said. “We call it the clubhouse, but we want it to be home for the entire community of the youth so that they have a place to come by and get whatever work they need to get done and also contribute to the animal welfare industry, whatever they can do.”

Pets In Need transfers cats and dogs to its facilities from public shelters in the Bay Area and beyond when they are in danger of being euthanized due to space or financial limitations.

julia@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200, ext. 105