October Volunteer Spotlight: Linda Friend

Alicia Starr
October 19, 2021
Linda in Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost inhabited town before Antarctica.

Job Title

Cat Shift Leader/Board Secretary 

What I do at PAWS

PAWS has become a special place for me.  I’ve been a cat foster for more than 2 decades, even before we moved to this building, and was lured in by Nancy Slaybaugh.  About 10 years ago I became Friday night shift coordinator in the cat wing and have met and worked with some amazing volunteers and great staff.  I appreciate both the camaraderie and professionalism that continues to develop, and really like that we continuously try new things to make the cats and kittens comfortable and stimulated. I recently became Secretary of the PAWS Board so am seeing a different aspect of PAWS. Most of my career was at Penn State University Libraries, where I spent the decade before retirement as department head for a new electronic scholarly publishing unit. One thing most people don’t know about me is that I live in Penns Valley and had a working farm and raised sheep. Right now the animals are Irish setters and cats.

Favorite Hobby

It’s hard to choose a favorite hobby but I guess I’ll pick travel, which has certainly been curtailed by the pandemic.  I have friends in Scotland who are musicians and have a tour business so I try to go there every several years to visit different places and hear lots of music. I like more “exotic places,” too, and have been to Egypt three times, as well as Tanzania, India, China, etc.  My other volunteer activities include being co-president this year of AAUW State College and a board member for the Centre County Farmland Trust.