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Homeward Bound Pets

Founded in 1975 as Oregon’s first no-kill shelter, Homeward Bound Pets has seen a great deal of change in their business. Not only have they expanded their services, but their customer base has evolved too. There’s one thing Executive Director Ronnie Vostinak credits for their success, and that hasn’t changed: their dedicated staff and volunteers.

“I love helping those without a voice,” Ronnie explained. “We hear a lot of sad stories that are heartbreaking and sometimes rescue isn’t pretty but our staff is so amazing at handling it. We’re only able to do good because of them.”

Homeward Bound Pets has four components to their business: the shelter, spay/neuter clinic, thrift shop, and the Angel Fund program, each which relies on a mixture of paid staff and volunteers. The Angel Fund program helps low-income families with expenses to keep their pet happy and healthy at home. Specific criteria must be met to receive funding.

“From the volunteers who are cleaning up the kennels to the volunteers at our spay/neuter clinic and the thrift shop, they are rock stars. I know my staff is probably sick of hearing it because I say it all the time but they are amazing and we wouldn’t be here without them.”

Ronnie credits a large piece of their funding and community awareness from First Federal’s Customer Ballot program “I get so emotional when I see the ballot results every year,” she says. “Our fur-kids need help in our community and it means so much because we’re not getting the big giant grants. It’s not because we don’t apply for them, because we do but they go to the massive rescues. The generosity of our donors are what keep our doors open and allows us to keep low pricing in our clinic so to get that acknowledgement from the community on the Customer Ballot doesn’t go unnoticed.”

To shop their thrift store, adopt a dog or cat, or to learn more about Homeward Bound Pets’ services and volunteer opportunities, visit www.HBPets.org.

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