(EDITOR’S NOTE: Across our region, CHC/SEK employees are making positive impacts within their communities, both at work and as volunteers. We’re proud of their personal investment and the contributions they bring to better their hometowns.)
In clinic, STI/HIV Care Coordinator Logan Rink helps manage Dr. Julie Stewart’s HIV patients, where she provides case management, helps them get to their appointments and connects them to any resources they might need. Outside of clinic, Logan, as a certified professional dog trainer, provides volunteer services to help dogs have the best chance of being adopted.
Logan has been working in some capacity or another with rescues for many years.
“To be able to make a difference, find a foster, or provide that training assessment that helps get a dog into a rescue is super rewarding to me,” she says. “And, as a trainer, working with rescue dogs who come with their own array of issues, and quirks, getting to work with them and seeing them flourish with their new family or with their foster so they can be ready to go to their new family and seeing those success stories is totally priceless to me.”
After being a foster and having her own rescue for a few years, Logan decided she could be a “huge asset” if she were a certified trainer.
“I had all of these dogs that were in my home that I was fostering,” she says. “I wanted to be able to provide the best possible assessments for them and give them what they need to be adopted and rehabilitate them if needed.”
She fostered nearly 300 and rehomed over 100 dogs between 2015 and 2018.
“There will be some dogs that will always have a special place in my heart, and I’ve been fortunate to stay in touch with some of our adopters and see where their lives have taken them after they’ve been adopted and spoiled for the rest of their lives,” Logan says.
Logan provides behavioral assessments and training on a volunteer basis for SEK Animal Advocates. Several of the organization’s dogs have gone through her 6-week training class.
“They were more desirable for rescues to pull because that makes them more adoptable since they’ve had some previous training, know commands, and had a behavioral assessment from a trainer,” she says.
The most significant way people can help is to spay and neuter their pets to avoid contributing to the overpopulation problem. People can also foster dogs through SEK Advocates short term (no more than a few weeks), and they are always in need of donations toward vet care and dog food.
Logan welcomes any interested individual to contact her if they are interested in fostering or have questions regarding adoptable dogs, training, and assessments.
