Marin Humane Society

11.25.2016

Hi guys! Happy belated Thanksgiving,and a happy Black Friday to those who enjoy shopping today. (And hang in there, retail workers!).

This week I wanted to talk about Marin Humane Society. I may do specific pieces, from time to time, about a particular dog that is up for adoption, or specific events. But for this first post, you'll get a bit of an overview of what the MHS does, and what they have to offer. Why? Because many people don't know about these services! Just because you're not looking for a pet to adopt does not mean the MHS has nothing to offer you! Or that you have nothing to offer them.

As many of my friends and family already know, I have a strong love for this organization, as it is where I adopted my pair of guinea pigs, Agent Nibbles and the Mop. The workers and volunteers there are all incredibly kind, hard-working individuals who really want the best for the animals who are in their care.

Such as this guy, Davey, currently looking for a home. 

Learn more about him here.

And, they do more than just care for all the dogs, cats, guinea pigs, birds, etc. who need  forever homes. They also have a number of low-cost services (such as MicroChipping, vaccinations, and spay/neutering. They also offer FREE spaying/neutering for pit bulls, and currently, free microchipping or your cats. So if you have an outside cat (or even an inside one, those suckers can escape!), you can take them to MHS and they will micro-chip your little feline. FOR FREE. While supplies last.

But okay, okay. Let's say you don't even have any pets. Furthermore, you don't even WANT one of your own. What good does this blog post do you? Well, look no further. Do you at least like dogs? Or do you have kids? I glanced over their Event Calendar, and surprise, they might have something for you still! The first Saturday of each month, they have a Share A Book event at South Novato Library. What is this, you may ask? They say it best on their website:

"The Marin Humane Society's SHARE a Book program works closely with local teachers, reading specialists and librarians to help children improve literacy skills while offering them an opportunity to have fun reading - to dogs!

SHARE a Book's human-dog volunteer teams visit schools, libraries, book fairs, after school programs, reading labs and community outreach events."

Pretty cool, right? Check out their events calendar here.

Anyhow, I've only touched the very surface of what the MHS has to offer. They have all sorts of animal training classes, and other forms of outreach. They also welcome donations, whether that's in dollars or dog food. Hopefully you've learned something interesting about Marin Humane Society!

Keep in touch, and keep the Marin Humane Society and the animals housed with them in mind this holiday season. :) 

Stable and Able Youth

This Friday I went to a candlelit vigil for Social Advocates for Youth (SAY). SAY is a non-profit organization that helps homeless and former-foster children and teens build stable lifestyles for themselves. They provide housing for these kids as well as teach them valuable life skills. As their site says, "SAY does this with three tools: Housing, Counseling, and Careers."

On November 18th, they hosted "One Cold Night." This is a fundraiser where young professionals pledge to fund-raise and donate a minimum of $2,500 up to $15,000 for SAY. In addition, these professionals spend the night out in the cold. Meanwhile, homeless youth spend a warm night inside the SAY Dream Center. You can learn more about SAY here. There are opportunities to volunteer there, as well as donate to their cause. 

While I didn't spend the night sleeping out in the cold, I did attend their One Cold Gathering candlelight vigil for the 663 homeless youth in Sonoma County. It was a lively atmosphere, full of people excited to be there. They had live music, and there were tents up selling "One Cold Night" beanies, offering free tours of their facilities, and places to drop off donations. The idea was to bring a gift card from either Target or Big 5 to the event, so that the teens would be able to buy something new, for themselves. Later we were told that from the gift cards alone, they had raised several thousand dollars!



SAY's supervisor Shirley Zane, the president Steve Warden, their CEO Matt Martin, and others spoke to us during the event, discussing their goals, their successes, and their hopes for SAY. Last year they provided housing to 150 kids, and provided clothing and supplies to many more. They also had a speaker who used to be a homeless teen, and is now staying at SAY's Dream Center. His name is Sam, and while he had a rough upbringing, with a drug addicted, abusive father, and many nights sleeping out on the streets, he now has stable housing and a full time job.

Candles were handed out to all participants, and we had a few moments of introspection, to consider what these kids go through each day, and what we can do to help. To be honest it was a very emotional moment, and I'm extremely glad I had the opportunity to be there.



And you may be wondering--how much did SAY actually fund-raise with their overnight sleepers? You will be surprised at the results. They had 48 people who, last night, spent the night in the cold (and the rain!). Together, they raised $137,000! In addition, Redwood Credit Union donated $15,000, Friedman's Home Improvement and DeDe's Rental each donated $5,000, and they recieved $14,000 in anonymous donations. That totals up to $176,000!

Ultimately, what I learned is that SAY is an awesome organization that does good works for our community. I'm honestly considering volunteering for them, if I can work out enough freetime to do so, and I encourage anyone else looking for volunteering opportunities to check out their website.

It was one cold night, but a bright one for our teens' future.

Welcome to the Blog. Day 1.

Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog. My name is Sarah Hazelton, and I'm a fourth year law student at Empire College School of Law. My hope with this blog is to shine some light on local news that doesn't get covered as widely as the more turbulent national/global news. I'm also hoping to provide a largely unbiased (or as unbiased as I can manage, I'm only human) view toward my content, whatever it may be.

I've never really blogged before, so this will be a bit of a learning experience for me. With this first post I just wanted to give a bit of an overview of the sort of content that I will have here, as well as a little bit of an "About Me," so that you know where the information is coming from, ultimately.

OVERVIEW!

Environmental News / Law at the Local Level: I will be following some of the California Environmental Protection Agency's weekly meetings. They are available for anyone to watch electronically HERE, but I will be providing a summary and my personal thoughts on the matter here, for those who don't have the 2+ hours to spend watching. By no means will I be able to watch/blog about every video posted there, but I will be making an effort once a week to listen in and then blog accordingly. 

Local Events in the Rohnert Park/Cotati/Santa Rosa Area: I will also be making an effort to attend some sort of political or otherwise relevant event or governmental agency board meeting in the Rohnert Park/Santa Rosa area once a month, and will do a write up afterward of what was going on, the outcome, and my thoughts on it. 

Animal Shelters/Humane Societies: I'd also like to use this blog to highlight outstanding efforts of the local humane societies in re-homing and caring for stray, lost, and otherwise homeless animals. 

Other: This isn't an exclusive list, but the subject matter will hopefully remain in the same family. I am primarily concerned with animal rights and environmental issues, and that is going to be my focus. I may make exceptions for big issues (like the recent election), but I think we all get enough of that in the general media that it might just be overkill.

ABOUT ME!

As I stated, I'm a 4th year law student at Empire College. I live in Rohnert Park, and have for three years. Before that I lived and grew up in east Texas. I have a history degree from the University of North Texas, and a master's degree in legal studies from Empire College. In May/June of 2017 I will have a J.D., as well, and will be working on taking the bar exam. 

During the day I work at Empire College Law Library as the assistant librarian part time, as well as working as a law clerk at a small, Petaluma firm part time. I also help with the Sonoma County Law Library on Saturdays as a student assistant. 

When I'm not at work or in classes, I spend a lot of my time either watching television, playing video games, writing, or walking my dog. 

In any case....welcome to my blog, let's get this show on the road!