Volunteers help renovate shelter

THOMPSON FALLS – Volunteers came together to give Thompson River Animal Care Shelter a facelift on Saturday, utilizing a $5,000 renovation grant.

The GreaterGood Network awarded TRACS with the grant earlier in the month and the money was to be used on upgrading both the kitchen and the garage.

Volunteers from both the shelter and the community came together to help ensure the area was easier to utilize.

The day started bright and early at 8 a.m. for founder Wanda Thorpe and volunteer Warren Winter. The duo made sure everything was ready to go by the time the volunteers began to arrive an hour later.

 The GreaterGood Network was awarded the grant by Pedigree and was supposed to be on hand to help with the renovations. However, after discovering that airfare and car rental prices would eat up a good chunk of the $5,000, the network decided to put more of the money into the shelter by helping manage the program over the phone.

Winter was nominated as the lead contractor on the job, since he has his contractor license and took over the project in the kitchen, replacing the old, mismatched cabinet doors with new oak cabinets. Volunteers helped Winter rip out the cabinets and begin the process of replacing them.

In the garage, the smell of paint was thick in the air as volunteers manned their paintbrushes, putting a new coat of paint on the walls. Shelving units were also put up after the paint had dried to help make a more organized storage area.

In all, 20 volunteers came out to help. Sixteen of those volunteers helped with the renovations, while three of them brought lunch for the volunteers.

Eric Shaenboen was one of those volunteers. He has volunteered with TRACS on most weekends for the last two years. After working at an animal shelter in Chicago, Shaenboen moved to Thompson Falls to finish his education at Thompson Falls High School.

He began working at TRACS part time and was happy to help with the project.

“I was here all day yesterday cleaning out this place and taking down the shelves,” Shaenboen said while painting the garage.

He joined forces with the other volunteers to make as much progress on the renovations as possible. Despite all the volunteers on hand, the projects were not completed.

“Are projects ever totally done?” Founder Wanda Thorpe asked with a laugh. “We did not finish completely, but we got a lot done.”

In order to complete the renovation, some upper cabinets still need to be installed in the kitchen, the garage door needs to be painted and the garage door openers need to be installed. The hope is the rest of the projects will be finished by the end of the week.

Despite the work left to be finished, Thorpe was happy with the progress throughout the day and said it was all possible thanks to the helping hands that showed up.

“The volunteers are what made it work and it was great that we had so many people step forward to give a whole day or part of their day,” Thorpe said. “That was wonderful of them and it was really appreciated.”