Volunteers of the Year 2021
PAWS Chicago salutes our volunteers who give their time and love to helping homeless cats and dogs
Every year, we honor PAWS volunteers as our Volunteers of the Year. While every single volunteer is absolutely vital to the work we do, these ten special individuals went above and beyond in lending a helping hand to Chicago’s homeless animals. Help us celebrate 2021’s winners and read a little about what makes them so invaluable to PAWS!
Congratulations to Briana, Erik, Maryellen, Sam, Mary, Claudia, Judy, Kimberly, Shari, and Joe!
Volunteer All Stars
Erik Czarnik
Erik began his journey with PAWS because he wanted to give back to the community and give time to a cause that he cared for. Growing up, he had always been around dogs and dabbled in dog sitting so, volunteering for an animal shelter made perfect sense! Erik quickly became an indispensable part of the volunteer team as a Dog Town volunteer at the Adoption Center. He became a level 2 dog handler, first shift mentor and then an adoption counselor all within the first five months. Erik has really gone all in as a PAWS volunteer. In addition, he’s volunteered at numerous events, participated in field trips, training classes and adopted a PAWS puppy of his own – Valentina! Erik is incredibly helpful, supportive, has a great attitude, and is a joy to be around. Erik truly embodies the PAWS Chicago volunteer spirit.
Briana Allen
Briana is a bona fide cat whisperer. She just has the magic touch when it comes to some our most sensitive felines. Much of this comes naturally, but Briana has also spent much of her time with PAWS learning about feline behavior and medical conditions so that she can be an even greater support for them. She is a remarkable caregiver and advocate for all cats, no matter their history.
Whether working with a “behavior cat” at the Adoption Center or providing TLC to sick kitties at the Medical Center, Briana is always working to better understand our cats and striving to give them the care that they deserve. But it doesn’t stop there. She shares this knowledge with her fellow volunteers as Kitty City lead, mentor, feline behavior class instructor, and TLC team training class instructor.
Maryellen Friedman
Maryellen began volunteering with us in 2017. Since then, she has accrued over a thousand hours of service and become our top TLC trainer at the Medical Center. Maryellen brings a level of care and dedication to TLC and is one of the main reasons it is still a thriving program. Most recently, she helped train our new generation of TLC volunteers and t’s so clear how her love for our sick and recovering animals has inspired them.
Maryellen’s dedication to our sick and recovering animals is clear to see. For example, she dedicated hours to a pup named Alejandro because she knew that, since he was still a puppy, these moments of socialization and love were so pivotal for his development. Alejandro’s quality of life is better as are the lives of all out TLC animals because of Maryellen!
Mary Harte
Mary has an empathetic connection with so many of the dogs at the Adoption Center, especially the shy, fearful dogs that are sometimes overlooked by other volunteers and adopters. Mary takes time to bond with these dogs and earn their trust, always respecting their boundaries and advocating for their needs. Whether she is staying two hours beyond her scheduled shift time or comforting an adopter about their dog who recently passed, Mary’s compassion is always on display. There is no job too large or too small for Mary - she rolls up her sleeves and makes sure what needs to get done, is done. We are so grateful to have her in Dog Town!
Sam Goodman
Sam spends most of his volunteering hours in transports by bringing our newly eligible dogs and cats onto the next step of their journey, transporting donations, lifesaving medicine, and important files back and forth for us day in and day out. Transport is one of the most important volunteering tasks we have, and Sam not only lives up to the expectations of the role, but he also often goes above and beyond to help with additional tasks. He willingly doubles his time commitment and his route just to lend a helping hand.
Volunteering multiple times each week, Sam brings such dedication and steadiness to the team. He is reliable, friendly, and efficient. When Sam’s name is on the schedule, we know that our animals will be receiving top quality care and that transport will go on without a hitch. On top of that, he finds the best silly gifs so, emailing him is a delight. Thank you to Sam for all his hard work!
Claudia Langman
Claudia has done so much for PAWS over the years. From joining the Development Board, to fundraising, to training to become a Level 2 Dog Town and Dog Care volunteer. We know that she is committed to the PAWS’ mission. But there is no better example of that commitment than her time volunteering in our Community Outreach program. She has assisted with our Pet Food Pantry, distributing pet food and supplies to pet owners in need, canvassing the neighborhoods we serve to get the word out about the services we offer, checking folks in and out during our community vaccine or “Spay Day” events, and providing transportation for client pets every single week!
Claudia has spent hundreds of hours in the field, working directly with clients in under-resourced communities of Chicago and helping to make sure they have all they need to care for their pets. She believes that everyone should have access to high quality pet care, and helps provide this for so many families week in, week out. Claudia is truly irreplaceable.
Judy Myers
Judy is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. The volunteer staff and her fellow volunteers are so grateful for the gentle presence and kind demeanor that she brings to all things PAWS. She is especially adept at welcoming new volunteers to Kitty City and guiding them through their first shift. Judy’s relationship with her mentees and new volunteers lasts long beyond their official first shift, and she often takes the time to explain policies and procedures to volunteers even when she is not mentoring. Judy also spends time with our felines who require additional exercise and enrichment, and has clicker trained many of our high-energy, intelligent Level 2 kitties, much to their adopters' delight! We are so appreciative of Judy’s service over the past years in Kitty City.
Kimberly Smith
Kimberly has been involved with PAWS since 2014 when she first started fostering cats. She has fostered over 40 PAWS cats since then! Kimberly is what we’d call a triple threat – volunteering with dogs, cats, and people! She is trained as a Level 2 in both dogs and cats and also as an adoption counselor. Additionally, she leads evening shifts, mentors new volunteers in both Kitty City and Dog Town, is the Level 2 Kitty City Social Chair, has participated in numerous off-site events and, most recently, has taken on the remote role of helping the Medical Center foster team update profiles on our website. Because of her professional experience, she has also helped us revamp some of the Kitty City training materials, which is just a testament to how dedicated, enthusiastic and supportive she is about PAWS Chicago and its mission. We are so grateful for all that she does!
Shari Wolf
Shari embodies kindness and compassion. She is the type of person who bakes cookies for a staff member’s birthday and brings them in to the Adoption Center even when she isn’t volunteering that day. She is a “mother hen” who remembers even the smallest details about staff and volunteers' lives. We are unbelievably lucky to have Shari as a volunteer in Dog Town; you can usually find her staying 3 to 4 hours past her scheduled shift time to make sure that all of the dogs have been walked and adopters have been helped. In addition to all of her hard work in Dog Town, Shari also represents PAWS at special events and participates in the Fun Run program. Shari is known for her thoughtfulness, her calm presence, her humor, and her gift with animals.
Joe Zanoni
Joe’s professional background in public health is what initially drew him to volunteering at the Medical Center. He quickly became fascinated with all of the moving parts of our organization and pledged to help wherever he was needed. He became an Intake Volunteer and an Intake Trip Driver so he could support the safe transfer of animals to PAWS. He became a Level 2 Dog Care volunteer so he could support our dogs with greater behavior concerns. He became a TLC volunteer so he could provide love and attention to some of our most vulnerable animals with medical conditions. He has also fostered the cutest pup, Kane, to help him through his medical issues.
Joe’s volunteerism is driven by the notion that all beings are connected and that the relationships we have with our pets affect our own well-being. And if we humans deserve top-notch medical care, animals do too. He believes this so much that he has worked to help others understand this notion. As a professor, he has created work/study opportunities for students in his program to encourage them to volunteer at PAWS, and has developed a career exploration experience for high school students in under-represented communities that involved a visit to the Medical Center and a Q&A with one of our vets.
It is a treat to work with Joe because he understands our mission so well and knows that every spay neuter appointment, every dog walk, every conversation with a neighbor, every piece of litter picked up, and every small action we take can make an impact on the community as a whole.