Have you ever thought about volunteering at the SPCA? We’d love to have you join our volunteer family! There are many opportunities, some in the shelter, and some you can do from your own home. See the list below for just SOME of our opportunities! And be sure to join our email list to stay up-to-date on activities where the SPCA could use your help!
From socializing kittens and walking dogs to cleaning cages and getting hands-on with the care of animals at the SPCA, animal care volunteers are right at the heart of our operation. Please note that due to the safety concerns and physical demands of certain tasks, certain opportunities are limited.
Kitty cuddlers, including children, are welcome to come in and learn safe handling techniques so they can help socialize the shelter cats and kittens of Hancock County. Kitty cuddlers may bring a book to read to the cats, may play a handheld video game silently, or may color or draw. When the cats want to, you can even play and snuggle with them – how adorable!
Kitty cuddle training usually happens on Saturdays and Sundays at 2pm. Please make sure to reserve your spot and fill out an application first.
Dog walkers come in regularly to help our dogs exercise. Because the majority of our dogs are larger and, like many shelter dogs, can be anxious, we require that dog walkers are 18 years or older. This is for safety and security reasons.
Dog walker training usually happens on Fridays from 11am to 2pm and lasts about an hour. Please make sure to reserve your spot and fill out an application first.
Shelter helpers are 14 years or older and help out with general cleaning around the shelter, from washing dishes to folding laundry and other housecleaning tasks. These little things may not seem like much but it sure piles up with so many animals, and we truly appreciate the helping hands!
Shelter helper training usually happens on Fridays at 9am to 10am. Please make sure to reserve your spot and fill out an application first.
Cat care helpers are 14 years or older and clean cat cages and cat community rooms. They may eventually learn more advanced handling techniques such as microchipping and nail trimming and restraining a stressed animal. They need to give attention to detail and notice changes in cats and report health concerns.
Cat care usually happens on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in the morning. Please make sure to fill out an application first and then reserve your spot when one becomes available.
Answering phones, emails, and questions is only part of the job – the other part is making sure adoptions go smoothly when you volunteer at the front desk. Please note that due to the safety concerns, you must be 14 years or older to volunteer at the front desk since this is a job that puts you in direct contact with the public.
Front desk helpers have the important job of answering phones and questions that come in on a daily basis, every Tuesday through Saturday, 12pm to 4pm. It’s like customer service, except the end result is not only happy customers who want to support our mission, but *hopefully* happily adopted animals!
Front Desk Helpers can learn how to answer phones and work from speech templates on answering commonly asked questions on Wednesdays from 3pm to 4pm. Please fill out the Front Desk Application and then use the Google Calendar link you receive to schedule a training date.
Adoption day is a big day for people, and Paper Pushers make it extra special by ensuring that adoption packets are prepared with cute handmade gifts from donors and other volunteers, plus gift certificates and educational pamphlets. They also help make sure all Petstablished records are kept up-to-date. We also have years and years of paperwork to organize through and could use the help of someone (or several somebodies!) who have the patience to help add data to our online system.
While training for this happens every Wednesday from 3pm to 4pm, once you’ve learned the necessary skills, you can work on data entry remotely, and much of the paper pushing can be done at the shelter any day of the week as long as you come between 7am and 5pm. Please fill out the Front Desk Application and then use the Google Calendar link you receive to schedule a training date.
Greeters make everyone feel welcome at the shelter, even when we have to be closed to public visits and drop-ins due to COVID-19. They are social and friendly folks who answer the door and hand out paper applications to interested people, or help them set up appointments in the future. They also bring in and log the in-kind donations that are dropped off for the SPCA, and they help the community take what supplies they need from the pet pantry
Greeters can come and learn the ropes on Wednesdays from 3pm to 4pm, and then are welcome to volunteer Tuesdays through Saturdays, 12pm – 4pm. Please fill out the Front Desk Application and then use the Google Calendar link you receive to schedule a training date.
Our bottle drive made $30,000 last year, which went a LONG way to paying off essential vet bills for the animals. You can help save lives when you volunteer in one of the following ways. Please note, you do not have to fill out a volunteer application to bring us your bottles OR to use our CLYNK bags. There is no training for bottle volunteers – just do it at your own pace and make a big difference!
Throughout the year and seasonally in the summer especially, partnering businesses donate their bottles to the SPCA of Hancock County as long as we send someone to pick the bottles up. Our volunteers who offer to do these pick-ups will receive gloves, sanitizer, and bags as long as you stop by the shelter before starting a pickup. Please note you will need to use your own vehicle. A map of bottle drive locations will be provided.
On the last Saturday of every month, SPCA volunteers are encouraged to host bottle drives in their neighborhoods throughout the county. They can either bring the collected bottles to the SPCA or use CLYNK bags and deposit these at their nearest Hannaford. We love connecting with neighbors at these volunteer-driven events! Please note, we recommend having TWO people at each location. If you would like to host a location for a month, feel free to fill out the application below or otherwise reach out to us!
CLYNKers are our expert bag folders and dispensers of CLYNK bags with SPCA tags to their neighbors. You can pick up a supply of CLYNK bags to fold and tag from the SPCA by calling ahead, or you can have us drop them off to you. CLYNK regularly accounts for a large chunk of our bottle drive revenue, so thank you for your part!!
