THANK YOU!
We are incredibly lucky to have so many wonderful people in our community who are inspired to help the animals. They bring us amazing donations of food, supplies, and funds gathered from all over and anywhere they can. Many even donate their personal time! They are amazing advocates for the animals and HSSC, so we want to give these Humane Heroes the very special shout outs they deserve!!
Scroll through the photos to see what makes these wonderful individuals our #humaneheroes!
OCTOBER 2023
We were pleased to be invited to a special screening of Fire Cats- Save Something Small to benefit an animal rescue organization in the Ukraine, and participate in the post-film panel to discuss pet disaster preparation and awareness. Our Executive Director and Director of Shelter Initiatives joined Directors from Sonoma County Animal Services, Forgotten Felines of Sonoma County, and Sonoma CART for the special Q&A session. Thank you to Roxanne and the Rialto Cinemas of Sebastopol for including us in this really special event. The theater raised $1800 for The Hachiko Foundation, which provides critical animal rescue services in the Ukraine.
Thank you, Hansel Subaru, for supporting the Humane Society of Sonoma County so generously! Throughout October Hansel Subaru has helped sponsor adoptions and hosted a successful Kitten Palooza where 15 kittens were adopted on the day of this event! We would also like to thank The Krush 95.9 FM KRSH for adding to the purr-fect vibes to the Kitten Palooza Event with great music and for generously providing goodie bags filled with essential kitten supplies for our new pet owners.
Major THANK YOU to everyone who participated in our September Give Back Tuesday at Rainbow Cattle Company! Thank you to volunteer extraordinaire Yvonne and all her helper volunteers at the event and gathering raffle prizes! Thank you to the always delightful Sister Scarlet Billows, the MC with the Mostest, who called out 70 raffle prize winners! Big thanks to La Bodeguita #2 for the delish Mexican buffet! And thank you to everyone who attended and bought raffle tickets!
Thank you, Kamya and Alisha (and your mom and dad), for your compassion and kindness, generosity and love for the animals!! Kamya and Alisha set up a lemonade stand in their neighborhood to raise money for the animals.
SEPTEMBER 2023
Our great friends at Oliver’s invited us to be part of their big 35th anniversary celebration! Our social therapy dogs Bubbles, Elvis and Bebe had a great time greeting customers, and HSSC received proceeds from the wine tasting at the Windsor store! Thank you to Oliver’s for including us in their anniversary bash!
Thank you to the team from Landmark Vineyards for spending their volunteer day with us! Some of the team helped spruce up our dog yards and take out those pesky foxtail weeds, as well as help our Facilities team find a leaky pipe. Others of the team bagged food for our Community Action Team! Landmark generously donated $500 in food for us to provide much needed cat and dog food for people in need in our community. Thank you so much to Landmark Vineyards for your donation to our C.A.T program, and for bringing a great team to help us out!
We love to bring our Kissing Booth to Loud and Clear for their popular re-string fundraiser! Thank you Neville and the Loud and Clear staff, and to all the musicians who tuned up for our pups! We are so thankful for our partnership with our local music store!
This fun expo at SSU and Women in Conversation event was developed to create an environment to engage with remarkable women and to learn their stories firsthand, for inspiration, motivation, collaboration, and idea generation. Aside from the day’s guest speaker, Petaluma’s own Nasa astronaut Nicole Mann, our booth was amongst amazing organizations and vendors owned by, run by or serving women. Thank you to Oliver’s Market for sponsoring our booth, and having us set up right near them! It was a fun and enriching day, and Snoopy visited our booth!
Thank you to our friends at Jeff Cohn Cellars! We were the beneficiaries of their Fall Wine Club Release Paella Party, with a percentage of ticket sales donated to support our programs and animals. Thank you to the wonderful staff and winery guests who were part of this paella fundraiser, we are so grateful for your generosity and support!
AUGUST 2023
We want to thank our friends from Medtronic for spending their Volunteer Team Day with us!! They tackled our gazebo project, applying much overdue care- sanding and staining- to help beautify this space for our guests, staff and volunteers to take a break and reflect on the animals they love. Some of the group also spruced up our Tail Waggin’ to get it ready for our Gala! It was all clean and sparkly, and prepped for an onslaught of kittens that we brought to our Wags, Whiskers and Wine event. Thank you Medtronic Team for all your hard work and big smiles!!
Sending out a big bubbly Thank You to Breathless Winery for inviting us to be part of their Bubbles & Crepes event! Our Kissing Booth smoochers and social therapy dog, Bubbles, made sure to bring the puppy love to this fun event. Thank you Breathless Sparkling Wines for including us!
We are sending out a HUGE shout out and thank you to our friends at Shady Oak Barrel House for hosting a pet food drive for our Community Action Team! The Community Action Team (C.A.T.) is a response to the growing call for help from people in our community who struggle to meet their pet’s needs. We are so grateful for their support and help to stock our shelves for our much needed CAT program. Thank you Shady Oak Barrel House!!
JULY 2023
Big thanks to Rainbow Cattle Company, Sister Scarlet, Russian River Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and our rockstar volunteer Yvonne Morones for the most successful Give Back Tuesday ever! Thanks to everyone who attended, bought tickets, enjoyed drinks and dinner, and won fantastic prizes! We’re also grateful to those who donated pet food, with the support of our Community Action Team, helping pet owners in need in our community. Special shoutout to Bobby Frederick & the bartending staff for donating 10% of bar sales, raising $2700 for the animals.
Huge shoutout to the The United Flyers of Sonoma Disc Golf Club! Their recent event was a huge success, and we’re incredibly grateful that they chose HSSC as the recipient of the $3200 proceeds! Thank you for your support!
A heartfelt thank you to Dpi Copy! They went above and beyond to help our Pet Food Pantry when they learned we were running low on cat food. Their generous donation of 240 pounds of dry food and 540 cans of cat food from Costco is truly amazing! Your support means the world to us and the cats we care for.
A big thank you to Summit State Bank! We are incredibly grateful for being chosen as their promotional partner. The lovely ads they created on our behalf are truly heartwarming and will help spread awareness about our cause. Your support means so much to us and the community we serve.
JUNE 2023
Thank you, Amy, Amy’s Wicked Slush, and the Healdsburg Prune Packers for including us in one of our favorite events of the year – the Prune Packers baseball game in Healdsburg! We are always so happy to be invited, to this super fun-filled family event!
Thank you to our friends at Mercy Wellness for their generosity, and to their customers who donate their change in our boxes! Mercy fundraises for us throughout the year, and we are so very grateful for their amazing partnership and support!
MAY 2023
We are so grateful for ALL the compassionate ways our volunteers take time in their busy lives to show up for the animals. Abagail is one of our amazing Cat Care Partners. She loves spending quality time with our feline friends – enriching their lives and letting them know they are loved. She was also very excited to deliver a very special donation to us on behalf of her employer, Amica Insurance. Amica Insurance Company has a special Employee Community Involvement Program that awards grants to the nonprofits where their employees volunteer. Abagail was awarded a generous grant to HSSC in recognition of her volunteer service!! Thank you, Abagail, and thank you Amica!!
The amazing Petaluma Girl Scout Troop 10262 made 10 super cool dog pull toys, all from reused materials!! When they stopped by HSSC to drop them off they got a personal tour of the shelter from our Humane Educator Kathy Pescar! We love receiving thoughtful donations from passionate animal loving youth!
Huge thank you to The Healdsburg School’s first grade class who chose HSSC for their service learning project! The class recently adopted guinea pigs from our Healdsburg shelter and they are “obsessed!” These animal loving kiddos hosted a pet supply drive and collected a ton of donations for the animals. We were blown away by the size of their donation, and tried getting everything they donated in the photo but ran out of room! Thank you so much Healdsburg School First Graders!
Thank you to our friends at Inman Family Wines for hosting a fundraiser for us! They invited Kissing Booth Animal Ambassador dogs to great their guests, and so generously donated all their wine tasting ticket sales to support our work! We are very grateful!
Memorial Hospital in Santa Rosa invited our Animal Ambassadors and Kissing Booth for their Nurses Appreciation Week, and we had a great time providing puppy love and comfort to their hard working staff! They also held a pet food drive for our pet pantry, and we are incredibly appreciative for their generosity and thoughtfulness!
During the month of May the Montessori School in Healdsburg teaches students about Community Helpers, and this May, they chose to help HSSC! Children ages 3-5 drew awesome pictures and donated a ton of pet supplies for the animals! We were so pleased to receive this surprise donation, thank you so much to the teachers and students of the Montessori School in Healdsburg!
Thank you Silver Oak Cellars for inviting us to their Wellness Fair for employees of Silver Oak Winery…we all had a pooch smoochin’, tail-waggin’ great time!
A huge thank you to the amazing athletes from Santa Rosa United Boys 2008 ECNL soccer team who came and did many chores for the shelter including stacking and organizing crates and shoveling, wheel barrowing and spreading bark in our dog play yards! Thank you to these fantastic kids for sprucing up HSSC!
Thank you to a local Sonoma County VCA for their surprise donation of prescription pet food! Their generous gift will go to help support some of our Community Veterinary Clinic patients who are in need of prescription pet food.
We want to thank our new friends and partners at Sonoma County Tourism! As part of their celebration of National Travel & Tourism Week, a Sonoma County Tourism Cares event was held at the Humane Society of Sonoma County’s Santa Rosa campus. Learning that our pet pantry shelves were empty, they purchased 418 lbs. of pet food which their volunteers divided into small Ziplocs for distribution at one of our Community Action Team events. For those in this fantastic group who wanted to get their hands dirtier, some of their volunteers cleared dangerous foxtails from the landscape of our dog play area by pulling weeds and laying down woodchips. The SCT team enjoyed a tour of the shelter to learn more about the vast work of the Humane Society of Sonoma County and its Community Action Team (C.A.T)!
Our fabulous friends from Graton Casino worked super hard bagging hundreds of pounds of pet food for our Pet Pantry and also helped transform our play yard’s landscaping by pulling weeds and distributing mulch. They accomplished so much in their few hours at the shelter and we are so grateful for their hard working, animal loving volunteer team!
APRIL 2023
Healdsburg Blue Printing Services recently saw our Social Media plea for pet food donations for our Pet Food Pantry… and wow did they go the extra mile! They dropped off 500lbs of cat and dog food (wet and dry) at our Healdsburg shelter! We are SO grateful for their immense generosity. This pet food will directly support local pet owners in need of a little help caring for their pets.
Want to know more about our Pet Food Pantry and how to donate? Please visit: humanesocietysoco.org/owner-support/pet-food-pantry/
Thank you to our dear friends at Garrett Ace Hardware for donating supplies for our Healdsburg Guinea Pig Vegetable Garden! We’re so excited about this new, fun and sustainable way to grow delicious food for our fuzzy vegetarian friends. Garrett’s also hosted their Spring Kick Off event and invited HSSC to bring our kissing booth along for the fun! We are very thankful for their partnership and look forward to harvest veggies from our Guinea Pig Garden!!
Thank you to the Freshman Class Officers at Analy High School!! These animal loving youths spearheaded a very successful school wide fundraiser for the animals!! We were blown away by the generosity of their donation and are incredibly grateful for their humane compassion. Thank you to everyone at Analy High School who participated in this fundraiser, especially the Freshman Class Officers!!
We want to send a big Thank You to our friends at Morpheus Med Spa for donating all the proceeds from their Puppy Love raffle in February to support our life-saving work! Their raffle fundraiser was a huge success! Thank you to all who purchased raffle tickets, and to Dr. Chilcott and her fabulous staff for always thinking of creative and fun ways to help the animals in our community!
Thank you to Papapietro-Perry Winery for hosting the Humane Society of Sonoma County for their Puppies and Pinot fundraising event! Our Kissing Booth dogs and volunteers enjoyed spending time with the wonderful guests at this lovely winery with a great view of the Dry Creek Valley! We are so appreciative of their support for our work and gifts to the animals!
Thank you to the children from Proctor Terrace’s Kindergarten Class who worked hard to earn money for the animals!! Their teacher recently stopped by our shelter to donate their generous gift and we’re deeply grateful for the hard work these awesome kids put into this project. Thank you!
MARCH 2023
Thank you to Marty, Bonnie-Jean and JJ at Shelton’s Natural Food Market for donating a large box of veggies for our Healdsburg Guinea Pigs to enjoy! They were sqweakin’ and wheekin’ with joy for their delicious dinners! A big thank you to our fantastic volunteer (who specializes in Guinea Pig snuggles) Dan Mason for helping us facilitate this lovely donation!
Grace is a very creative, animal loving kid who designed, painted and sold book marks around her neighborhood as a fundraiser for HSSC! After selling all of her beautiful book marks, she brought the donations by the shelter to deposit the money and tell us all about her love of animals! Grace’s life-long dream is to be a veterinarian, she is already studying hard at such a young age so she can get into vet school! We are blown away by her kind heart and passion for animals.
Joe Felice, the principal for St. John’s School in Healdsburg, recently dropped by our shelter to donate a huge amount of pet supplies for our animals! This fantastic donation was collected by the amazing students of St. Johns during their “Spirit of Giving Week”, where they choose a local organization to support each day of the week – and Joe told us that HSSC is always at the top of their list! Thank you to the big hearted, animal loving students of St. John’s!
Thank you to Viansa Winery for including us in their great Puppies & Pinot event! We were there with our Kissing Booth, doling out dog kisses and lapping up dog love! We are so grateful for our community partnerships and for being invited to participate in this fun day at the beautiful Viansa Winery!
FEBRUARY 2023
Thank you to the Rialto Cinemas Sonoma County and the New York Dog Film Festival for inviting us to participate in the screening of the dog films at our local theatre! We enjoyed a percentage of ticket sales while the audience enjoyed wonderful films! We look forward to partnering with the Rialto for more fun pet-related films! Stay tuned…..
Our friends at Mercy Wellness always throw the best parties, and we’re so thankful to be invited! Not only did they host our donation boxes at cash registers at both locations, they also requested our Kissing Booth to make Valentine’s Day even more special for their customers! We are so grateful to be the recipients of their wonderful generosity. Thank you Mercy Santa Rosa and Mercy Cotati!
Thank you to the generous 2nd grade class form West Side Elementary School in Healdsburg who picked HSSC for their community project! The class gathered up three full bags of blankets and towels to donate to the animals! One of the students (who regularly visits the shelter to say hi to the animals) dropped off their donation – so we snapped a picture of her sitting with one of our shelter cats posing on a blanket they donated!!
We want to send a giant Thank You to Dutton Estate Winery for the wonderful weekend of wine to benefit the Humane Society of Sonoma County! We were thrilled to be part of their Pinot for Paws! They collected food, blankets & toys for the shelter animals and our pet pantry, and donated a lovely wine & chocolate pairing for the raffle! What a beautiful event to celebrate their amazing Pinot and love of animals!
We wanted to send an HUGE Thank You (and Dōmo Arigatō ) to Styx and Rock to the Rescue, as well as our good friends at Graton Casino and our fabulous HSSC volunteers for an amazing night of generosity and rock and roll!!
Last Friday Styx put on an amazing show at the Graton Casino. They also have a nonprofit organization, Rock to the Rescue, that supports local charities in the towns they perform in! We were overjoyed to be their charity of choice in Sonoma County! Thank you to everyone who purchased a raffle ticket, and congratulations to the winner of the signed Styx guitar! We were able to raise money for the animals all while having a total blast at the rock show.
Thank you to our friends at Hawley Winery for the amazing Puppy Love FUNdraiser to kickstart Valentine’s weekend for 2 legged & 4 legged romantics! Delicious wine provided by Hawley, smooches provided by our Kissing Booth dogs as well as Bubbles and Remy, who took a break from providing reading therapy to kids to join the fun! We are so honored and grateful to be invited annually for this sweet fundraiser!
JANUARY 2023
Tessa, Reese and their mom stopped by our Healdsburg shelter with a loving donation. They had combined their piggy bank savings and wanted to give it to help the animals! While they visited the shelter they got a chance to feed our guinea pigs and even spent some time with one of our adoptable dogs, Cashew! This adorable donation warmed our hearts. Thank you Tessa and Reese!
We love when artistic people donate their talents to raise funds for our animals! Samveda did just that, offering artistic renditions of pets for the holidays, and donating 100% proceeds to HSSC! Her artwork brought many smiles to pet owners as well as staff here at HSSC. Thank you Samveda for your creativity and gift!
If you missed her fundraiser, you can still order a portrait of your pet through her website, here: https://samvedaruk1.wixsite.com/art-for-animals
We want to send a giant heartfelt Thank You to each and every volunteer who wrapped gifts, and all the happy customers who tipped our wrappers and contributed to this annual fundraiser for our Angels Fund! Volunteers wrapped in 3 different locations, giving up their valuable time around the holidays to wrap and decorate gifts and packages for tips. None of it would happen if not for the vision, organization, patience and hard work of our amazing volunteer Yvonne Morones, who dreamt up this fundraiser in 2016 and knocks it out of the park year after year since. This year saw the 3rd highest funds raised in the last 6 years, with the cumulative funds raised since she started this fundraiser at almost $33,00
Yvonne’s tireless dedication is above and beyond, and we congratulate her on the success of her beloved Wrap for Paws fundraiser! We know she couldn’t do it without her devoted Wrapping Elves! Thank you to all who have brought holiday spirit, joy and sparkle to our Angels Fund! We also want to send our gratitude to Montgomery Village for setting up a Gift Wrap Station for us and providing lovely wrapping paper, the merchants at Montgomery Village, and to Copperfield’s Montgomery Village and Copperfield’s Sebastopol for the wrapping tables, space and beautiful gift wrap!
Madelyn has participated in 3 Humane Society camps, during one of her previous camp sessions she decorated a donation can, which she then saved up HER OWN money to fill, and brought it in as a donation to the shelter! Thank you for your generosity Madelyn!!
Maya and Iris collaborated during the holiday season and sold mistletoe for donations to HSSC! These philanthropic friends raised money for the animals and got to visit with some of our shelter pets when they dropped off off their gift! Thank you Maya and Iris for your thoughtful donation!
We had so much fun at this holiday wine tasting event with our friends at Moret-Brealynn Wines, Clarice Wine Company and Limerick Lane Cellars! They donated amazing raffle prizes to raise funds for the animals, and our Kissing Booth smoochers gave out kisses of gratitude to their club members and guests. Thank you Moret, Adam and Alexa for hosting us and raising funds for our animals!
Each year the wonderful McBride family chooses a different charity to support. They come from a big Midwest family who pool their money together to make one large donation to the charity of their choice. This year HSSC was the lucky recipient of their generosity! We were delightfully surprised when they dropped by the shelter and are so happy we got to meet a few members of this generous, compassionate family!
Delilah had previously attended HSSC summer camp in Healdsburg. She stopped in today to drop off a very generous and thoughtful donation. She started a donation box at Mr. Moon’s gift shop in Healdsburg, to raise money for the animals! It’s always inspiring to see the youth of our community find ways to help our furry friends. Thank you, Delilah!
We want to thank the staff at Graton Casino for inviting us to be part of their Wellness Fair! We were happy to be in the ballroom filled with other local organizations and vendors promoting health, wellness and in our case, the therapeutic effects of dog kisses!