The 2025 PAWS Volunteer of the Year is, Heather Shadow!
Nominations are accepted annually through the end of June. A review team, composed of 1-2 members of the PAWS Board of Directors, the PAWS Operations Team, and the Executive Director, considers all candidates and collectively selects the winner from all of the nominations submitted.
To be eligible for consideration for the Dave Abler Volunteer of the Year Award, the nominee must be a current, active volunteer with PAWS, have a significant depth of involvement with PAWS on a daily basis, and/or spearheaded an effort that was invaluable to the organization, has volunteered with PAWS for 5 or more years and exemplifies the PAWS core values of compassion, generosity, open communication, and responsible practices in their volunteer work
The Volunteer of the Year is awarded a brick in the PAWS Memorial Patio with their name and year of award, a senior dog and senior cat will have a Guardian Angel awarded in the winner’s name and they are featured on the PAWS website and in upcoming social media and email newsletters.
Heather is a devoted PAWS cat volunteer, though she loves dogs and helps them when she can as well. She has been a part of PAWS since 2017 in that time, Heather has served in many roles.
- Heather has been a dedicated Cat Pet Partner, celebrating the “baby steps” a shy cat makes and documenting their progress. She helps lower their fear, anxiety, and stress while at PAWS and helps improve their chances for a swift adoption.
- Heather is an active, compassionate foster parent and has welcomed many, many cats and kittens into her home.
- She regularly works tirelessly to photograph every single PAWS cat and writes the website biographies for each of those cats.
- Heather assisted with a huge behind the scenes project when we switched all cats to a new online veterinary record program. She spent hours transferring records and ensuring accurate information was listed for them all. She continues to assist in keeping those records up-to-date.
- You will regularly see Heather at the low cost vaccination clinic events as a part of the administrative team that keeps things running smoothly.
- Heather also recently started in a newer role as a Cat Intake Volunteer, helping to check in new cats at PAWS and work with their surrenderers.
- In her most "front facing" role, Heather serves as an Adoption Counselor, helping to pair cats and kittens with new families. Because of her close involvement with all aspects of the cat program, she knows the PAWS cats extremely well and is able to make successful matches.
- Heather’s nominator also highlights that “she is a cat nail trimmer extraordinaire. I have witnessed her single-handedly and successfully clip all 18 nails on some extremely wiggly kitties.”
Congratulations and thank you, Heather, for your support! Volunteers like you are the heart and soul of PAWS.