Darlene Everett—The Lady at the Counter
Early in 2005, plans were afoot with two goals in mind: to make our Shelter more “people friendly,” and to put into place up-to-date business practices to make the Wayne County Humane Society a more professional com-munity organization. To that end, a “secretary” position was created. Darlene was then hired in June, having been selected from a field of many candidates.
What does the secretary do? First and foremost, she is pleasant and courteous to all Shelter visitors and callers; she is enthusiastic about our animals needing to find permanent homes. Additionally, she has many record keeping duties including entering financial and animal-related information into the Shelter databases. She orders supplies, prepares billings and monthly statistics, verifies that information on adoption applications is complete, etc., etc. Darlene is the force keeping order and consistency within our busy Shelter.
Darlene comes to us with years of experience in the banking business. When she lost her job due to downsizing, she took some computer courses and embarked on a new career. Now she still works with the public, but, with her Shelter job, she gets a personal sense of satisfaction when people and animals are matched up for a new life together. Our organization is small, but much more personable than a bank, according to Darlene.
Darlene’s job is sometimes stressful due to the volume of telephone calls and people coming into the Shelter. Also, she must refrain from being judgmental in situations where people treat their animals as disposable possessions, to be discarded at will. Further, it is heart-rending when animals must be euthanized for any reason. Darlene says she knows, intellectually, that “you can’t save them all,” but it still hurts when you can’t.
Seeing discarded, stray, and hurt dogs and cats “turned around” to become happy homeward-bound animals is what Darlene enjoys. She is pleased to work with a staff where the animals come first and everyone is there for the animals.
Like everyone at the HSWC, Darlene has a Shelter Wish List; she would like to see us expand into a new larger Shelter (for right now though, better lighting in our cat room would help with displaying the cats); more paid personnel would be helpful; increased efforts to educate the public to spay and neuter their animals and to be kind to all animals would be terrific. In the meantime, Darlene will keep doing her good work of encouraging the public to become friends of our humane society.