Record-Breaking Community Day
Nov 09, 2021
Our PAWS Chicago Community Outreach team dedicates their time to underserved neighborhoods in Chicago by cultivating strong relationships, sharing educational information, and providing resources for pet owners such as veterinary care, Pet Food Pantry, and training advice. Throughout the year, the team holds different spay/neuter and vaccination events, including moving events hosted via our GusMobile (aka the “Gus Bus”) that run April–October, proactively bringing free vet services to Englewood and Back of the Yards neighborhoods.
In October, our Community Outreach team held their largest Community Day to date. Entitled “Healthy Pets, Healthy Communities,” this event served a record-breaking 650 local pets with rabies and distemper vaccines, flea/tick medication, and dewormer.
Around 70 percent of the pets in attendance were not yet spayed/neutered. PAWS staff and volunteers helped make 80 appointments for future spay/neuter surgeries and furthered our No Kill mission through education and community engagement. In the coming weeks, the Community Outreach team plans to contact all who utilized this amazing event in an effort to keep an open line of communication and forge lasting connections.
The successful Community Day, held at Seward Elementary School in Back of the Yards, was sponsored by the Banfield Foundation, which provided all the vaccines, rabies tags, and flea/tick medication. Our team also partnered with Increase the Peace, a local youth-led, anti-violence organization; their youth community organizers spent hours in front of stores on 47th Street passing out flyers to promote the event in addition to our canvassing.
Watch Community Day media coverage on CBS 2 Chicago.
This massive achievement would not have been possible without the 60 volunteers who assisted at the event, our dedicated Clinic team, including veterinarians Dr. Kristel Yocom and Dr. Nick Yohanna, and our small but mighty Community Outreach team. Together, we made a real impact in the lives of pets and their owners.
Interested in joining the cause and donating your time to pets in need? Volunteer