By: Karel Minor, CEO/President of Humane Pennsylvania

Wow, so how about this year?  It’s really the gift that keeps giving.  It’s delayed all our major projects, ruined our events, and tormented our staff at every turn as they try to do what they do best: help animals and people in our communities.

Despite all this, they’ve pulled through. They’ve found new, creative ways to do their best work under ever changing (I mean, seriously EVER CHANGING) conditions.  It’s been harder to help animals and people, especially at the rates and levels we try for, but our amazing staff have been doing it with their usual skill and grace.

Our donors and supporters have also been amazingly generous and where we’ve been unable to have our spectacular events because of crowd restrictions, they’ve helped make up the difference through donations.  With the reductions in operating revenue due to COVID related operating mandates, this extra generosity has allowed us to ensure not a single staff member had to have hours cut or jobs lost.  Thank you, to each and every donor.

A Federal operating loan under the PPP program also helped.  Another round of stimulus in 2021 would really help our staff, and all the animals and people we help.  Looking at you, Congress.

This is the time of year I always write a “We are thankful for…” post.  I’ve never meant it more than I mean it this year.  From our donors, adopters, volunteers, fosters families, staff, board to, yes, even our US Senators and Representatives who gave us the PPP loan lifeline, everyone has come together to make sure we can do what we do best: Building the best community anywhere to be an animal or an animal caretaker.

A mission like that doesn’t come easily or without a lot of effort.  That’s why we are deep in planning for next year and we have two plans.  One is the worst case scenario.  We are good at worst case planning since we were small and poor not that long ago and even though we aren’t as small now, we are not flush with cash, either.

But we’ve got another plan.  It’s the “What if everything works out OK and we can get back to normal?” plan.  We’re really hoping that by the middle of next year we can start working to that plan, and make up for the time and service we’ve lost during this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.

Thank you for your support during this tough time.  All of us at Humane Pennsylvania are truly grateful of it and of you.  We hope you have a safe and happy Thanksgiving and we can’t wait to see you again in person.