SARF Volunteers
by Cynthia Morris, 3/10/08

Sarge's Animal Rescue Foundation is attracting dynamic, devoted animal lovers into its volunteer program. Active volunteers are crucial to Sarge's reaching its goal of building an adoption center for Haywood County.

Lisa Staudenmaier is the Chairperson for Sarge's adoption days. She prepares the WNC Visitors Center by setting up the crates and beds for the foster animals making sure that the dogs and cats have plenty of water and the cats have food and litter boxes. She then dismantles everything to go back into storage until the next time. Staudenmaier also fosters animals rescued from the Haywood County animal control facility. She and her mother, Jean Hisey, moved to Waynesville from the west coast of Florida where she raised her family. Staudenmaier managed a preschool for 13 years and was a costume designer for 6 years for a theater group named Crisp & Company. She made costumes for many large scale mucicals such as "Hello Dolly," "Gypsy" and "Cabaret." Staudenmaier and Hisey started a thrift store for their church in Florida as well as an outreach ministry to help the working poor and homeless people in their area. In Waynesville, Staudenmaier works in the food pantry at Haywood Christian Ministries. "I will be working at the shelter one day a week during the extended hour they are staying open on weekdays to give the public a better chance to view the shelter animals," said Lisa. "I have always taken in strays of all kinds," she continued. "I am honored to be a part of Sarge's as a foster home and to help out any way I can." Russia and Jade are Staudenmaier's two cats.

Kristin and Phil Coleman met while working for the Houston Zoo. They volunteered with HOPE, a dog rescue group in Houston. "We were very excited to hear about Sarge's when we moved to Waynesville," said Kristin, "and we decided to get involved right away." The Colemans volunteer to drive breed rescue transports, foster animals and take photographs at the animal control facility to post on petfinder.com. In addition, Kristin, who is the Activities Coordinator at the Maggie Valley Club, organized the Pet Photo Contest in March and is creating the graphics for the Happy Tails Golf Tournament committee for posters and flyers. Phil is a policeman for the city of Asheville. They have 2 rescued dogs. Jack is an Australian Cattle Dog mix and Daphne is a hound mix. The Colemans also have 2 parrots and a turtle. They presently are fostering Dodge, a Feist mix, and Zach, a Schnauzer mix.