CONNECT.
Pet Nation’s Weekend Community Service Trips
Sharing Stories
Each weekend, Pet Nation members, along with a couple therapy dogs, visit local senior centers and spend quality time having meaningful conversations that transcend the age differences and allow their past life experiences to come alive and inspire us, playing BINGO! with the residents, and allow them to interact with our dogs. The residents have shown us how important each visit is to them, and how our human and animal presence gives them delight through their laughing, smiling and joking. These visits not only are important to the residents but also inspire us in countless ways, knowing how we make their day so much brighter and happier. By connecting with each resident, we have the unique opportunity to hear their personal stories and experiences, all pieces of history coming to life that we are not able to see in our history textbooks at school. Through each visit, we gain one-of-a-kind experiences of love, kindness, friendship, compassion, and the precious celebrations of lives well lived.
Love the Experience
Every weekend, we as Pet Nation visit local senior centers with our fluffy animal friends!
From the first Pet Nation visit until now, I have seen a transformation from the residents with memory disabilities from asking our names several times every minute to now being able to recognize us with glee and anticipate our weekly visits. The residents’ emotions have changed from being calm and quiet to being filled with happiness and delight when they see Pet Nation’s members and Sugar, a comfort dog, walking through the main doors. Through helping out with the brunch activities, bingo contests, trivia games, and having conversations with the residents, these fulfilling experiences are gratifying to both us and the senior residents. They love Pet Nation’s presence and we form unbreakable friendships through the time spent there. The residents have shown us how important each visit is to them, and how our presence gives them delight.
The center’s Executive Program Director describes the positive impact Pet Nation has, saying, “Pet Nation has allowed our residents to experience excitement and joy, as they genuinely look forward to each upcoming visit where they have the awesome opportunity to interact with Pet Nation Members and have an enjoyable time petting the dogs!”
One special resident was Mrs. Evelyn B.
(Read her story below.)
Cherish the Rich Memories
In the August of 2018, we celebrated the beautiful life of Evelyn, one resident who peacefully passed away at the age of 96. I had the special opportunity to meet her almost 3 ½ years before when we commenced our first weekend Pet Nation visit. In fact, one of my fondest memories of Evelyn was the day I first met her. Her initial warm greeting and gentle smile made me feel instantly at home. Over the next ten minutes, she happily cuddled Sugar on her lap and stroked Sugar’s soft fur while sharing personal stories about her children, former pets, and younger years. We could see Sugar’s instant connection with Evelyn, as Sugar’s eyes lit up with happiness and delight with each tender pet.
Ms. Evelyn interacting with Sugar and a Pet Nation volunteer!
In every visit after that day, Evelyn would always be the first person to greet us with her usual happy, upbeat attitude. Her vibrant energy was contagious, and she filled the whole lobby with her beautiful laughter and singing when songs were played on the piano. Her favorite song to sing was “What a Wonderful World.” She would ask us how our day was going before we had the chance to ask the question ourselves. Evelyn would always comment on how spiffy and handsome we looked in our neat collared dress shirts. Her memory was exceptional; she would memorize answers to over 300 trivia game questions, recall the exact lyrics to over 100 classic songs, and remember who we were each week I visited. She genuinely cherished our visits with Sugar and always would joke with us by asking us when we would visit again, even though she knew the answer.
After she passed away, during the memorial, Tom, my older brother who had been going with me to all our visits, and I, proudly shared our special connection we had with Evelyn in front of her family, friends, and fellow senior residents that had personally known her. We described how we, along with Sugar, truly formed a special, unbreakable bond with her that grew and grew with every visit. I talked about how Evelyn was a huge reason we looked forward to our visits to the senior center. We also heard stories about her younger years, when she was awarded by the city of San Francisco who honored her dedication to volunteering at the AIDS center and a hospital for blind children. Before the memorial, Jack and I had made a condolence card to her family that shared our personal relationship with Evelyn and how much we deeply missed her. We had the great chance of meeting her children, who all expressed sincere gratitude and appreciation for our thoughtful card.
Through Evelyn’s memorial, I came to realize the profound impact Pet Nation has on those we serve. I am personally touched by the close human relationships we forged each minute of our visit. Our service organization is not simply a club that promotes the appreciation of pets, but one that incorporates the universal love of pets as a common bridge to bring all types of people together while helping the younger generations develop lifelong skills to become great leaders of tomorrow. Evelyn has taught me so much that I could not learn in the classroom. Her zeal for life has made me appreciate the simple pleasures. Just sitting and chatting with her, I have grown to be a better human being and strengthened my desire to serve. I know that Evelyn is watching over us with her unforgettable smile. I have the privilege to call her my friend still.