Volunteer Opportunities

What can you do to help save a dog?

Join us!

Become a foster home: offer temporary shelter to a dog

that we've evaluated. We do our best to match your home to what we know about the dog: its suitability with cats, kids, other dogs, etc. We cover vet expenses and ask our foster homes to pay for food.

Make reference calls for applications. This can be done from home, usually in the evenings or on weekends

Help transport dogs: usually in one hour legs on major roads close to home, or be a "Run Captain" who arranges transports by setting up routes and e-mailing them out to lists of volunteer drivers

Evaluate dogs for possible intake (we'll provide training)

Do home visits: get to know prospective adopters so we can match them with the right dog

Public Relations - get the word out about New Spirit! Post flyers at local pet stores,vets, dogs parks --anywhere you can think of! Look for opportunities where New Spirit can set up a table to educate and raise funds, or come up with new ideas!

Fundraising - help man a booth, march in a parade

Help with recordkeeping, website maintenance, or anything else you might like to do.

Volunteer application

Benefits of volunteering

Make new friends - dog people are great people!

At New Spirit, we welcome you into a whole community of dog people, many with years of experience in training, evaluations, behavior modification, agility, obedience, etc..

You don't need to be an expert to join New Spirit - you just have to love dogs!

We'll also invite you to our on-line discussion list: get advice on dog issues, share your experiences, talk about dog health and behavior, get sympathy and support, and so on.

Oh, and plan to laugh a lot!

We love what we do but we don't take ourselves too seriously :)

New Spirit 4 Aussie Rescue Annual Fun Day!

Each year we invite all of our volunteers, New Spirit adopters and prospective adopters and their dogs to come together and celebrate the success of the group. It's a chance to put face with names and have a great day of good food, good fun and everything Aussie! Volunteers and adopters travel from Maine to the north, Florida in the south, and all points in between.

Dublin, Shasta & Ranger sport their NS4AR Bandanas

and do their part to support the group!

New Spirit Vice President, Laura Scudder,

setting up a fundraising and public outreach booth

Kathy and Janet "Meet & Greet" the crowd

along with NS4AR Mascots of the Day.

Shep sporting his NS4AR Bandana and working the crowd!

New England Fun Day

On Saturday, June 12th, New Spirit Volunteers from across the Northeast converged on Windham, Maine to meet, greet, eat, plan and play with some beautiful Aussies. Because so much of New Spirit's communication is done online, the first priority was to put names to faces and get to know a bit about each other.

Pam, New Spirit's President, traveled from Pennsylvania. Janet and Joe came from New Jersey. Nancy and Diane came from New York. Others came from Maine and New Hampshire; including Donna and Pete, Lori, Kait, Laurie and Jodi. Our pack was rounded out by about ten Aussies and honoraries. Gathered around an outdoor fire and on the screen porch (this was Maine after all), we talked dogs and families, and plans to grow in New England. This was the second New England gathering. Stay tuned for big news from the third, next year!

~Laurie Kimball~