Giving animals a Christmas
Today in the Free Lance Star
Katarina Galvin (center, red coat) instructs a group of teen volunteers from Fairfax County on cleaning a shelter for feral cats at Rikki's Refuge in Orange County. Galvin, the refuge's volunteer coordinator, has organized an angel tree program to benefit animals this holiday season.
ROBERT A. MARTIN/THE FREE LANCE-STAR
ROBERT A. MARTIN/THE FREE LANCE-STAR
Teen coordinator at Rikki's Refuge launches a different kind of Angel Tree-one seeking gifts for animals
Date published: 12/20/2010
BY ROBIN KNEPPER
Angel trees are not uncommon this time of year, but Katarina Galvin has put her own spin on the tradition.
She has made and placed animal-angel ornaments, each with the wreath-surrounded picture of a needy non-human recipient, on Christmas trees throughout the area.
Galvin, 23, is the volunteer coordinator for Rikki's Refuge in Orange County, and the ornaments picture some of the 1,200 rescued animals that live on the 367-acre farm. The nonprofit sanctuary is home to more than 20 different species of abused, neglected and abandoned animals.
At the Petco store in Harrison Crossing in western Spotsylvania County, the Christmas tree is adorned with cat, dog, rabbit, guinea pig and turtle angels--domestic animals for which gifts can be purchased right there. The ornament can then be attached to the gift, returned to the tree or taken home as a memento.
At Booth Feeds' stores in Spotsylvania and Stafford counties, the angels are cows, horses, pigs, sheep, chickens and other farm animals. Other trees decorate offices, and there is one at Confederate Ridge Animal Hospital in Fredericksburg.
In Orange, there are trees at the Orange-Madison Co-op, Village Feeds and the LaRue de Beauty salon. In Culpeper County they can be found at the Culpeper Animal Hospital and the Culpeper Co-op.
Galvin was in the seventh grade when a friend's family took her on her first visit to Rikki's Refuge. That was seven years ago, but because she lived in Fredericksburg and didn't drive, she didn't get back to Rikki's until 16 months ago.
"I always remembered that it was a place with loving people taking care of animals," she says. "After I revisited it, I kept going back."
She was asked to be the sanctuary's first youth volunteer coordinator.
"It was really fun," she says. "I got to take disabled animals to schools and teach students how to take care of them, since some of them were differently abled kids."
Last summer, Galvin set up a teen volunteer program at Rikki's Refuge that attracted 15 teenagers who went to the farm on Thursdays to clean cat boxes, train dogs, organize trailers, paint buildings and care for animals. She helped organize monthly tours and open houses.
Starting next month, there will be Sunday tours of the sanctuary.
"Kerri Hilliard [the sanctuary's executive director and founder] supported me through everything," Galvin said. "This was the first time I had worked with animal rescue, and she helped me learn the operations and encouraged me to do more and more."
This isn't Galvin's first volunteer experience. At 16, she started as a junior volunteer at Mary Washington Hospital. After a month she was hired to work in the dietary department after school, during the summer and, later, during college breaks.
After college, she was promoted to an office job and is still employed by Mary Washington Healthcare.
As the volunteer coordinator for both teens and adults, Galvin finds her work challenging and rewarding.
"I love doing it," she says. "It's helped me become way more confident, and I've learned management skills and even how to train dogs."
This is the first year of the animal-angel tree, but probably not the last.
"I always feel good when I throw a fundraiser and it's a success," she said. "It blows me away every time."
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