Ed Smith spoke with Tami Becker, who volunteers and handles marketing and PR for Greece Residents Assisting Stray Pets.
-Tami talked about some of the history of the organization and how they are a rescue organization but they don’t have a physical shelter, they rely on volunteers and members of the organization to foster pets until they are adopted.
-Tami said they are in need of more volunteers to be fosters for pets. Since they don’t have a physical shelter, they need more people to take in cats and dogs until they can find them a new forever home.
-Tami explained the process of how to become a foster parent and said that GRASP provides everything that is needed like food, crates, toys, litter boxes, veterinary bills and more. This way there is no out of pocket expense for people that are foster pets for them.
-She said that another rescue group in town is already at capacity and not accepting any more pets right now. This is why they are pushing to get more volunteers to be pet fosters as they expect to see a large increase in animals as spring is typically when they see an increase in the number of kittens being born.
-Tami said that the organization is completely volunteer based, so all money raised goes to supplies for foster parents, veterinary bills and other expenses of running a rescue organization.
-Mildred’s Club is a new fundraising program that was developed to help them try to achieve a more long term income source. Tami gave an example of how during the pandemic they were struggling and posted on FB they needed help. That post helped them raise $10,000 which is wonderful but not enough for them to continue their operations. The idea behind Mildred’s Club is to make it easy for people to donate.
-Tami gave a preview of their upcoming Vegas Night, which is an annual fundraising event they do.
-GRASP is working to do more community outreach and get more people to be foster parents for the cats and dogs that they take care of.
-All of the money raised will stay local.
-Tami encouraged people to donate, volunteer or become a foster parent.