How You Can Help
Adoptathon On the first Saturday of every month, BYC holds an adoptathon at PetsMart in Erie, PA from 11am-2pm. Volunteers are needed to help set up/clean up tables and cages, hold dogs on their leashes and help answer questions from interested adoptive families.
Bake sales
We have 1or 2 bake sales at events throughout the year. If your interested in baking for us, let us know and we will call you when the sales are near.
Call volunteers
For each event, we have a list of volunteers that we call to man shifts. If you have a flair for talking on the phone and organizing schedules, this is a great activity that you can do from home.
Candle sale
We have an annual candle sale each fall in preparation for Christmas. If you have candle-loving friends, please sell some for us! Or if you are interested in coordinating the event, we would be happy to tell you about it.
Candy bars
Have a lot of chocolate lovers at work? We sell Daffin’s candy bars year-round. If your interested in selling some or maintaining a sale location at your place of work, your help will benefit our Spay and Release fund.
Crafts
We occasionally need seamstresses to help us sew cat and dog beds. Let us know if you are one or are talented with other crafts that may be of use to us. We also contribute annually to the Cat Show Chinese Auction as much of the proceeds from this show come to BYC.
Parades
We include our dogs in parades around Erie County throughout the parade season. Volunteers help organize the event and walk our dogs.
Foster pets
Our biggest need is for loving foster homes! It is the lack of sufficient foster homes that prevents the rescue of many pets referred to BYC. One of the most rewarding and perhaps challenging ways to volunteer is to become one of the families to see down-and-out cats or dogs through their transformation to a loving family pet.
Fundraising/Event planning
Like to throw parties? How about helping to organize a fundraising event! We have at least one each season, and we’re always open to new ideas. Here are a few of the events we have.
- Blue Knights Run (September)
- Annual Walk for Small Animals (October)
- Pictures with Santa (December)
- Cat Show (April)
- Auction (November)
Volunteer at events
We need volunteers for set up, clean up, to handle food, sell raffle tickets and just to man tables at all of our events.
Pet representative
Like fostering, this is one of the most challenging but most rewarding activities. “Reps” are there to guide foster families through working with foster animals, maintain the heath records of pets, ensure that the animals receive the veterinary care and supplies that they need and process the adoptions (including screening interested homes). The best part about the job is that you get to meet and play with all the animals and meet some very kind hearted families!
Phones, answer BYC lines
This is an every-day activity that requires you to learn about the organization and get to know others who are highly involved. Phone lines are normally split between several volunteers who set up the schedule of answering calls that works for everyone. You might schedule yourself to answer the lines three days a week all year long, or a week at a time once a month or every other week. The nice part about it is that you can help from home!
Transports
Foster home pets often need assistance in getting to veterinarians, adoptathons and other activities that will assist in their care and promote adoptions. There are times when rep's or foster homes are unable to provide this transportation and help is needed. Let us know if you might be available to play pet taxi! We also often have articles donated to BYC and it is always helpful to have someone who can pick up the donations and deliver them to where they need to go.
Because You Care networks with many other organizations online to help move dogs across states when they need to be moved from a high-kill-rate shelter to a no-kill rescue, or from a foster network to a permanent home that’s a little far away. It’s a fun way to have a nice road trip on a Saturday or Sunday. We also sometimes need places for dogs to stay overnight while they are being transported.
TNR
Our Trap-Neuter-Release program needs volunteers willing to return calls to those interested in altering a growing cat population in their area, help get traps to participating parties, transport pets to the veterinarian's and collect co-payments.
TV
Each Monday, we take animals on the news at noon on WJET TV 24. We often have other reasons for being on the news as well. If you’ve got a TV personality and would like to help out, we’d love to hear from you!
Vet tech services
If you’re a vet tech, we can always use your help! To keep costs down, we provide a lot of the routine medical care (as allowed by law) ourselves, including testing for feline leukemia and heartworm and the administration of routine shots excluding rabies. We need volunteers to help pet representatives makes sure the animals are ready for adoption.