Nominees for 2010 Board of Direc

Past President and Board member of other organizations in and outside the county and state

I was the treasurer of Stonehaven Homeowners Association for several years. I have 27 years experience working at Alba Waldensian Inc. in a lot of different capacities: planning mgr, Inventory control mgr, customer services and purchasing.

I love fostering puppies from Friends for Animals, reading, spending time with my Grand Children and family and walking in the woods.

Three dogs: 2 Pomeranians and 1 Maltese mix. One of my pomes came from BCFFA with a lot of problems. I think he was a puppy mill dog; he is a now very loving, house trained, and a great member of our family.

I have been a volunteer and member of Friends for Animals since April 2001, when it was still in some backyards and we did adoptions at any location that would have us. I have been the volunteer coordinator for about 4 years and worked on the 2010 calendar as well. I helped paint some of the rooms at the adoption center when we were opening, and helped organize files in Toni's office as they came from previous locations (the old office, her house, etc.) I have also served as a foster parent, and have 2 "failed" fosters to prove it! I am currently a member of the bylaws committee and have been a voice for volunteers and members alike!

I have been a special education teacher for 16 years, and have spent the last 9 working at J Iverson Riddle Developmental Center. I have worked also at H & R Block doing taxes for a few years and still do this for a few customers as a part time job. I also have worked part time as a consultant for Skill Creations, Inc., a private group home for people with mental retardation.

I have lived in Burke County for over 10 years (6 years in Rhodhiss, and the last 4 here in Morganton) and really feel a part of this community. I would like to see humane treatment of animals be the standard rather than the exception, and I believe in spaying and neutering and humane education as being the best tools to get this done. I do believe in the concept of a no kill shelter, although I support helping animals who are suffering needlessly to be helped into the next realm.

As a board member for Friends for Animals, I will bring experience, history, and fairness to the board. I believe in consistency, equity, and reality. I speak the truth and will not participate in something if I don't believe in it. However, I also understand that my opinion is not the only one present and will work hard to compromise within my belief system.

Traveled as a professional musician from 1973 to 1989 when I managed all of the bookings, fund raising, media advertising and business affairs of the band.

I have loved animals passionately from as long as I can remember and rescued orphaned, abandoned and injured animals starting at a very early age.

I believe in the mission of Friends For Animals and hope that one day we can save each and every animal by educating the public, reforming animal welfare laws, have stronger penalties against animal cruelty and one day become a no-kill County.

Philosopher and scholar Dr. Helmut Kaplan, reportedly once said, “Our grandchildren will ask us one day: Where were you during the Holocaust of the animals? What did you do against these horrifying crimes?”

I have over 25 years of experience working within administration for both profit and

non-profit organizations. I recognize the delicate balance between providing services

for homeless animals and managing a business. I am committed to making a difference in the lives of animals that are abandoned, unwanted, or in need of shelter. I believe there is a need for us to: raise money to help support our mission, manage the money we have so that we are working as efficiently as possible, educate the public on the need to be committed to the animals they own as well as the need for spay or neutering of pets, and increase the awareness of our community about the number of animals that enter the doors of Animal Control and Friends for Animals.

I believe in the mission of Friends for Animals and know that we have hundreds of volunteers / members who share the passion of caring for homeless animals. I know that together we can work towards a campaign of “no more homeless pets”. Everyone involved with this mission has a desire to make a difference in the lives of the animals in our community. I think I have the skills to build upon the foundation of Friends for Animals to help strengthen our mission and grow our organization.

Fostering dogs from Friends for Animals, woodworking, reading, playing the piano, photography, wildlife.

Three dogs: border collie / husky mix, 2 Chihuahuas. The border collie / husky is a dog adopted from a Humane Society shelter, the older Chihuahua came from a family that found out one of their children was allergic to dogs, and the youngest Chihuahua was recently adopted from a Georgia Animal Rescue organization.

I am Katherine Lee, a native of England but have lived for 13 years in Burke County (working with BCFFA early on) and 21 years in the U.S. I was raised in the post war years by a single parent as my father was killed in WW11. It was from my mother that I came to know, early on, a love and compassion for “all creatures great and small.” She was a born nurturer. I earned three university degrees, the last of which was a doctorate in education from UNC-Greensboro in 1993. Through my work at universities and Western Carolina Center, I have been an administrator and member of several boards, including Burke Arts Council as secretary and NC Arts for Health as Co-chair. I bring to BCFFA an ability to organize events, mediate disputes, write grants, and motivate others. I have participated in designing the calendar over the past thee years, thanks to the opportunities I enjoy during retirement. I have worked at a variety of volunteer events, contributing my “time, treasure, and talent,” and I plan to continue to do so in whatever capacity. My fundamental motivation is a commitment to the animals whose lives we might touch. I hope to see BCFFA solvent, unified, and effectively carrying out its mission, with an emphasis on improved customer relations. It would give me great pleasure to serve on the Board of BCFFA

The attitude of the wolf can be summed up simply: it is a constant visualization of success. The collective wisdom of wolves has been progressively programmed into their genetic makeup throughout the centuries. Wolves have mastered the technique of focusing their energies toward the activities that will lead to the accomplishment of their goals.

Wolves do not aimlessly run around their intended victims, yipping and yapping. They have a strategic plan and execute it through constant communication. When the moment of truth arrives, each understands his role and understands exactly what the pack expects of him.

The wolf does not depend on luck. The cohesion, teamwork and training of the pack determines whether the pack lives or dies.

There is a silly maxim in some organizations that everyone, to be a valuable member, must aspire to be the leader. This is personified by the misguided CEO who says he only hires people who say they want to take his job. Evidently, this is supposed to ensure that the person has ambition, courage, spunk, honesty, drive - whatever. In reality, it is simply a contrived situation, with the interviewee jumping through the boss's hoops. It sends warnings of competition and one-upmanship throughout the organization rather than signals of cooperation, teamwork and loyalty.

Everyone does not strive to be the leader in the wolf pack. Some are consummate hunters or caregivers or jokesters, but each seems to gravitate to the role he does best. This is not to say there are not challenges to authority, position and status - there are. But each wolf's role begins emerging from playtime as a pup and refines itself through the rest of its years. The wolf's attitude is always based upon the question, "What is best for the pack?" This is in marked contrast to us humans, who will often sabotage our organizations, families or businesses, if we do not get what we want.

Wolves are seldom truly threatened by other animals. By constantly engaging their senses and skills, they are practically unassailable. They are masters of planning for the moment of opportunity to present itself, and when it does, they are ready to act.

Because of training, preparation, planning, communication and a preference for action, the wolf's expectation is always to be victorious. While in actuality this is true only 10 percent of the time or less, the wolf's attitude is always that success will come-and it does.

An Excerpt from
The Strangest Secret
by Earl Nightingale

George Bernard Shaw said, "People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, they make them."

Well, it's pretty apparent, isn't it? And every person who discovered this believed (for a while) that he was the first one to work it out. We become what we think about.

Conversely, the person who has no goal, who doesn't know where he's going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion, anxiety and worry - his life becomes one of frustration, fear, anxiety and worry. And if he thinks about nothing... he becomes nothing.

How does it work? Why do we become what we think about? Well, I'll tell you how it works, as far as we know. To do this, I want to tell you about a situation that parallels the human mind.

Suppose a farmer has some land, and it's good, fertile land. The land gives the farmer a choice; he may plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn't care. It's up to the farmer to make the decision.

We're comparing the human mind with the land because the mind, like the land, doesn't care what you plant in it. It will return what you plant, but it doesn't care what you plant.

Now, let's say that the farmer has two seeds in his hand-one is a seed of corn, the other is nightshade, a deadly poison. He digs two little holes in the earth and he plants both seeds-one corn, the other nightshade. He covers up the holes, waters and takes care of the land...and what will happen? Invariably, the land will return what was planted.

Remember the land doesn't care. It will return poison in just as wonderful abundance as it will corn. So up come the two plants - one corn, one poison.

The human mind is far more fertile, far more incredible and mysterious than the land, but it works the same way. It doesn't care what we plant...success...or failure. A concrete, worthwhile goal...or confusion, misunderstanding, fear, anxiety and so on. But what we plant it must return to us.

You see, the human mind is the last great unexplored continent on earth. It contains riches beyond our wildest dreams. It will return anything we want to plant.