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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Sandra Johnston

Sandra, a native Calgarian, joined PALS as a volunteer in 1994. When the position in the PALS office became open later in the year, Sandra jumped at the opportunity thinking it would be a fun career change at least for a couple of years. So on January 2, 1995 she let herself into the PALS office and began a journey that has now lasted more than 12 years.

When asked why she has stayed for so long she replied that there are two reasons really. One, that the evolution of pet therapy and volunteerism in the past decade has kept the job interesting and challenging. And two, where else can a person have the opportunity to work with a diverse group of interesting and giving people who, without exception, consider their pets family.

info@palspets.com

VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR
Joan Andersen

Joan Andersen is a native Albertan who moved to Calgary in 1966 to attend university and has lived here ever since.  She began doing pet visitations in 1982 at the old Colonel Belcher Hospital with her first basset, a female named Harvie.  PALS had not yet been incorporated at that time.

Her second PALS dog was a female basset named Morgan.  Joan and Morgan visited at Bow View Manor for a number of years.  When Morgan retired, Joan remained active with PALS doing special events such as Art Market and Bingo and served briefly as a Board Member.  When a position became available in the PALS office in 2002, Joan decided that the time had come to work at something about which she felt passionate.  She is currently visiting with her third female basset, Joey (another girl with an odd name), and truly enjoys coming to work each day. 

 joan@palspets.com

OFFICE GREETER
Joey

My name is Joey and like all the other PALS animals, my job is to visit people and make them feel better.  We may not be able to talk, but we can communicate exceptionally well with our eyes, bodies and tails. (The cats cheat by using a rhythmic noise called purring.)  When it comes to PALS visiting, we animals do most of the work.  Our handlers help us by providing our transportation and by opening doors and pushing elevator buttons etc. 

I was born in Manitoba, but I moved to Calgary as a youngster.  Two nice ladies met me at the airport and took me to the PALS office.  There was a really tall blonde dog there named Fred, but he thought I was really annoying.  My new Mom took me home that night and I started trying to teach her about my cookie needs. She started teaching me the things I would need to know so that I could be a PALS dog some day when I grew up. 

A long time later, Mom says it was after I got my third brain cell, I earned my blue PALS scarf.  Before long, Fred decided I wasn’t quite as annoying as he had originally thought.   Now I go to the office with Mom just about every day.  My job there is to greet people at the door.  I always know they are coming before anybody else does.  I love visiting wearing my scarf and making lots and lots of new friends.  But at the end of the work day, I like to snuggle with my family in front of a warm fire and dream about rabbits.

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ART MARKET COORDINATOR
Susan Douglas

NEWSLETTER
Shannon Boyd
Jennifer Poole

NEWSLETTER EDITOR
Denise Ronsky

PET OF THE MONTH
Nancy Wessely

SPECIAL EVENTS COORDINATOR
Joan Lister

SPECIAL VISITS

STORY PALS

VOLUNTEER INTAKE & SCREENING

WEBMASTER
Darren Wessely

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