Susanna Wickham CEO Paws Chicago About Giving Day

Melissa Forman talks with PAWS Chicago CEO Susanna Wickham about Giving Day. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
All right, listen, Thursday isGiving Day for Pause Chicago, and you
know how much we love to helpand save animals. So my friend Susannah
Wickham is the CEO of Pause Chicago. She's on to tell us about it.
Susanna, Oh wait to hear adog bark that those are my children?
Is that your husband or they sayinggood morning? Oh? Yeah?
Hi guys. Wait, I imagineyou in a house full of like twenty

(00:21):
dogs. I would love that Sunday. Okay, So what's going on you?
Is something huge with Pause on Thursday? What's happening? Well, it's
our third annual Giving Day, andthe summer is a really important time because
that's when we see the largest influxof animals and it's just a critical time
for life saving in Chicago. Andso we ask our community to step forward

(00:45):
and to help us and to makea pledge for Giving Day so that we
can continue to do our work andhelp more pets. Now, when you
say giving, do you mean financially? Do you mean you need donations?
Do you mean fostering? Do youmean all of it? Like? What
can we do? We need?Yeah? We need all of it?
And I would say many people maketheir donations in the holiday season, and
that's wonderful. We appreciate it,but it also means that we have expenses

(01:08):
all year long, and it's animportant thing for us to be able to
fundraise during the summer because the needis so great. So really we're looking
for donations for Giving Day, butwe are always looking for volunteers and fosters
and adopters. Right, you andI were talking about this off the year.
I haven't talked too much about it, but I've had a poppy that
I've been fostering for just a weekand my eyes have completely changed. I'm

(01:29):
going to tear up because you thinkabout these precious little animals that are you
know, in high kill shelters andall. They're amazing and they come to
pause and they come to these rescuesright and they their lives are changed,
and so are yours. It's justincredible because when you foster a homeless pet,
they can be very stressed in theshelter environment. We give them so

(01:49):
much love, We have very caringpeople from our vets to our volunteers who
are interacting with them, but evenso it's stressful. So when they can
go into a home on their adoptionjourney. It changes the game. It
allows them to really unwind, expresstheir personalities. It allows us to learn
more about them that we can sharewith their adopters, and really they just

(02:10):
blossom in their foster homes. Allright. So this Pause Giving Day coming
up on Thursday, I'm asking everyone, if you love your pet, to
make a donation to Pause Chicago.It's pas Chicago dot org. What is
the what's the website again, that'sexactly right, pau Chicago dot org.
A Pause Chicago dot org. Also, it is summertime. It's a perfect
time if you have space and youcan be a foster, you know,

(02:31):
and your puppy gets to run aroundand your kiddies get to see a whole
another litter of kiddies. It's thebest thing for your soul, right,
it sure is. And also witha lot of kids home from school for
the summer, this is a reallywonderful thing to do as a family because
it's such a great learning experience andnurturing a homeless pet is one of the
most gratifying things that you can doin life. So we welcome people to

(02:54):
foster and they just go to ourwebsite and they can fill out a foster
application and within days they can havea pet in the home. So let's
help out. Pause Giving Day.It's coming up this Thursday. Pause Chicago
dot org. And if you workfor a big company, go in this
morning on behalf of Susanna's adorable pets. Oh my god, I'm loving it

(03:14):
so much. Only in this shopis that allowed, right Look anyone else
it would be considered unprofessional. Forme, it's perfect. I feel like
your dogs are asking please give ForgivingDay, Please Forgiving Day. If you
have a big company, go intoday and say you have a perfect thing
to do. Pause Giving Day thisThursday, Pause Chicago dot org. Okay,

(03:35):
su As, we love you.And what are your dogs' names again?
Gus and Aviana? Oh so cute? All right, give him a
big hug and let's talk to youin a couple of days. We'll remind
everyone for Thursday. Thank you somuch,