[Transcript]

​00:00:00:27 – 00:00:23:02
Ruth Baum Bigus
Welcome to KC Cares, Kansas City’s nonprofit voice. We’re telling the stories of Kansas City nonprofits and the people behind them. KC Cares is the intersection of the nonprofit and profit communities making Kansas City a better place to live, work and play. This KC Cares segment is brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. WW W Doug Coffman Dawg.

00:00:24:08 – 00:00:47:01
Ruth Baum Bigus
My name is Ruth Bob Vegas and I’m your host. More than 135 million households own a dog or a cat. Many here in Kansas City, numbers swelled during the pandemic, and yet many more dogs and cats have been surrendered back into shelters awaiting forever. Homes. Some still wander streets. At the Pet Resource Center of Kansas City, the goal is to keep our furry friends with us.

00:00:47:14 – 00:01:07:29
Ruth Baum Bigus
Started in 2002, the center is up to a half million animals in our area, providing services such as vaccinations. Spay and neuter. Emergency surgery and much more. Founder and CEO Michelle Rivera has the joy of seeing many furry friends each day. And a lot of people friends, too. She’s with us to share the story of the center. Michelle, welcome.

00:01:07:29 – 00:01:09:19
Ruth Baum Bigus
We’re so happy to have you with us.

00:01:09:24 – 00:01:11:02
Michelle Rivera
Thank you for having me on.

00:01:12:15 – 00:01:29:10
Ruth Baum Bigus
In prepping for this show, I was so interested in your approach. Your approach is different than other shelters and organizations in the metro area. Let’s start there. What makes this center different? What’s what’s that approach? Yeah.

00:01:30:05 – 00:01:57:20
Michelle Rivera
So our approach is more pet retention, shelter intervention. We’ve heard and been preached for decades now to spay and neuter. Spay and neuter. Spay and neuter. But this approach is a little bit more innovative over the last decade to looking at why people relinquish pets and trying to work on those resources and education and services to people to help them keep their pets healthy and keep them in their homes and off the streets.

00:01:57:28 – 00:02:04:28
Michelle Rivera
We’re not a shelter, but what we do is prevent animals from going to the shelter.

00:02:05:25 – 00:02:15:18
Ruth Baum Bigus
So much to dove into about everything that you do. But I want to go back to what inspired you to do this. You have a love for animals going way back.

00:02:16:20 – 00:02:38:25
Michelle Rivera
Well, I do, and I don’t. I. I was scared of dogs growing up. I was allergic to cats. I had been in abusive relationship. And my therapist suggested animal therapy by volunteering at an animal shelter. I didn’t know how I was going to do that since I was pretty terrified of dogs. But I ended up going to a local animal shelter.

00:02:39:04 – 00:03:02:20
Michelle Rivera
I got over my fear of dogs pretty quickly and really started to relate to some of those animals in the shelter that had been abused and neglected. I can relate to that, and I started to specialize in helping to rehabilitate those pets and build trust again. I left my corporate job and just fell in love with helping animals, helping on the business side, entrepreneurship side.

00:03:03:05 – 00:03:26:14
Michelle Rivera
And I just delve in and started helping at the front desk until I moved all the way up to management. But in those years that I was there, I was unaware of just how serious pet overpopulation was. In fact, I was so unaware that I didn’t even know our own shelter was killing 4000 animals a year. I guess I just thought they were getting adopted when they weren’t there.

00:03:26:29 – 00:03:55:28
Michelle Rivera
But after working there for a while, I found out indeed we were killing healthy, adoptable dogs, cats, puppies and kittens. And after doing that for four years, I couldn’t take it anymore. I knew there was a better solution. And so looking at the East and West Coasts and the spay neuter movement and how successful that can be in reducing pet overpopulation, I left the animal shelter and the pioneer of bringing the spay neuter movement here to Kansas City.

00:03:56:24 – 00:04:17:18
Ruth Baum Bigus
I want to get into that whole philosophy, but I want to go back a little bit. You stepped into a place where it was frightening for you. It was not a place like, Oh, goody, I get to go see animals for a little kitty cats and all of that. How did that organization kind of help you move through that, that it’s very dramatic.

00:04:18:29 – 00:04:41:22
Michelle Rivera
Well, there was a lot of animals that would stay to the back of their cages or to their runs and I didn’t know I was I was not familiar with animal welfare at that time. And so I was told, you know, those animals were scared, maybe abused, not treated well. And they were probably just going to have to build trust with people before they could even become adopted.

00:04:42:04 – 00:05:03:07
Michelle Rivera
And so that’s what I worked on, is just standing in there with animals are sitting in a run. I remember just sitting in a run with dogs, with their backs to me, looking at the wall, so terrified, so scared and traumatized, but working with them every single day and building that trust was such a rewarding feeling and it helped me as well.

00:05:03:14 – 00:05:14:26
Michelle Rivera
Give me more purpose and knew those animals needed me and I needed them. So that was absolute positive therapy for me to get over what had gone through in the previous years.

00:05:16:00 – 00:05:19:04
Ruth Baum Bigus
How brave of you to do that.

00:05:20:01 – 00:05:36:16
Michelle Rivera
Yeah, it was it was scary at first. I was terrified, but I just I could see the difference I was making with those animals, helping them through and getting them adopted. It just made me feel so good. And then I just wanted to do more. I wanted to find homes for all of those animals.

00:05:37:11 – 00:05:55:23
Ruth Baum Bigus
And I’m one of those believers who thinks that animal feels what the human feels as well. So it’s kind of a mutual healing that goes on that I think sometimes those that are not pet owners or not familiar with it don’t see or understand that dynamic. We get to have a whole conversation about that and don’t want to get stuck there.

00:05:56:02 – 00:06:05:21
Ruth Baum Bigus
So fast forward, you were seeing the spay neuter movement. It comes to Kansas City in when take us give us a little history.

00:06:06:09 – 00:06:34:00
Michelle Rivera
So in 2002, I had left the animal shelter to start this program. And I was working out of a full service veterinary clinic and sold my vision and my idea of being able to stay a neuter. Thousands of pets every year. I’m thinking a couple of thousand a year. And so we use that practice to help build up a reputation and start a low cost spay neuter program.

00:06:34:00 – 00:07:02:07
Michelle Rivera
And then it just took off. A partnership with MSU emerged from that where students came to Kansas City to help us with that movement. And we were doing several thousand, but I started doing research and calculating out just how many we would need to do to actually make a difference. And it was a drop in the bucket, so we had to explore bigger spaces and expand out to do thousands more.

00:07:02:07 – 00:07:09:22
Michelle Rivera
And by 2005, we were surpassing 5000 pets a year of spay neutering.

00:07:10:01 – 00:07:13:21
Ruth Baum Bigus
At what point did you take that next.

00:07:13:26 – 00:07:15:18
Michelle Rivera
Step of.

00:07:16:03 – 00:07:19:14
Ruth Baum Bigus
Creating a nonprofit and moving that forward?

00:07:20:08 – 00:07:43:00
Michelle Rivera
So we were spay neutering, and yet I didn’t feel it was really enough and we were called spay neuter Kansas City back then. We’ve recently changed our name, but one of the biggest pivotal moments for me is realizing, you know, it’s great, all these people are calling us, but what about the people that are not calling us? They need to be they need to have their pet spayed and we have to reach them.

00:07:43:13 – 00:08:07:06
Michelle Rivera
So we started outreach and that meant going out into the community, knocking on doors and talking to people about the benefits of staying neutering and then using a transport system to get those animals into the clinic. And then we saw another Bruce, but then it was a few years later, by 2008, I then worried, okay, we’re spay neutering thousands of pets a year and that’s great.

00:08:07:25 – 00:08:28:29
Michelle Rivera
What if these people don’t keep their pets? What if the millions of dollars we have invested the time and expenses that we’ve put into this program and they don’t keep their pets. Looking back on my own experiences with my pets and in many cases that we came across of people just how much they love their pets, we began to start to focus on, well, let’s make sure they keep their pets.

00:08:28:29 – 00:08:56:19
Michelle Rivera
So we need to provide the resources that they might need. And we started with just the basics food pantry, some dog houses, making sure that they could call us if they needed something. And that worked great. And then it just continued to evolve and evolving, evolve where we’ve got to give people everything. We’ve got to give them access to affordable resources across the board and overcome that stigma.

00:08:56:19 – 00:09:18:23
Michelle Rivera
If you can’t afford a pet, you shouldn’t have one. That was a big challenge for us and an obstacle that we were trying to get through to our supporters. They didn’t quite put two and two together and understood and that people love their pets regardless of their financial means. And in fact, I’ve seen a lot of houseless and low income people who depend on their pets.

00:09:19:02 – 00:09:34:13
Michelle Rivera
Their life is their pets. And so we are an organization that embraces that with compassion, nonjudgmental, and want to make sure that we’re here for everybody, for all the resources they need to not break that bond between the animal and human.

00:09:35:19 – 00:09:46:23
Ruth Baum Bigus
We’re talking with Michelle Rivera. She is the pet Resource Center of Kansas City. You mentioned you had recently gone through a name change. What was that process like and why did you do it?

00:09:47:03 – 00:10:07:26
Michelle Rivera
Yeah. So we’ve been called spay neuter Kansas City and that’s what we primarily primarily focused on, but then adding all those outreach resources and then starting to do low cost vaccinations. We heard over and over again, oh, you do that, too. All you do that, too. And so we knew, you know, spay neuter was not going to be enough.

00:10:07:26 – 00:10:33:20
Michelle Rivera
We had also seen such a reduction in pet overpopulation in Kansas City that by 2016, no more healthy, adoptable pets were being killed in our area shelters. So technically, I started off, you know, in a job or in an a mission to put myself out of business. But it’s really evolved past that where spay neuter just isn’t enough anymore.

00:10:33:21 – 00:10:45:28
Michelle Rivera
You’ve got to be able to provide a broad range of resources and support to your community for people to keep their pets healthy and keep them out of the shelters in the first place.

00:10:47:21 – 00:11:03:05
Ruth Baum Bigus
How did you come up with the name? Was it I always like to share with other nonprofit leaders, you know. Did you hire an outside firm? Was they pulling your team together or was it an epiphany moment? How did you land on it? It says it all. Yeah.

00:11:03:24 – 00:11:32:23
Michelle Rivera
It took years. We tested out Families Better Together program. Kind of tested that as our outreach program. It took years and nothing we settled on just felt like, Yeah, this is it, this is it. So we did go out to an outside marketing company who found us something within 30 days. They came in, they toured, they immerse themselves in our mission, and they came back with a few renderings and ideas.

00:11:32:23 – 00:11:42:20
Michelle Rivera
And when we saw the logo and Pet Resource Center of Kansas City, we fell in love. We just knew that was us. That was absolutely 100% us.

00:11:43:07 – 00:11:43:27
Ruth Baum Bigus
It clicked.

00:11:44:09 – 00:11:44:19
Michelle Rivera
Yeah.

00:11:46:02 – 00:11:51:12
Ruth Baum Bigus
So let’s let’s share with our audience all the things that you do. Do you still do some spay and neuter?

00:11:51:25 – 00:12:14:13
Michelle Rivera
Correct? Yeah. And yeah, we do spay neuter about 11,000 a year. And, you know, I’m amazed every time I go back into the spay neuter ward. Where are they coming from? They’re still coming. Every single day, about 70 surgeries a day. And then we do a wellness vaccination clinic. This is a drive up system that was invented during COVID.

00:12:14:13 – 00:12:38:19
Michelle Rivera
We have six lanes. It’s real easy. You stay in your car with your pet. The pets are less stressed. It’s a waiting process, but we serve over 100 pets a day in just vaccination and wellness. So, you know, it’s a busy, busy clinic, but everybody gets a high standard of care and the most affordable vaccinations and wellness care for their pets.

00:12:39:02 – 00:13:12:24
Michelle Rivera
We just launched an open, urgent care in June of 2022, have seen 3000 pets and expect that to double within the next year. We are expanding and opening starting a capital campaign to expand that clinic. This is a clinic that accepts pretty much everything across the board sick, injured, emergency surgery, trauma. It’s a it’s the only affordable and low cost urgent care facility in Kansas City for pets.

00:13:13:08 – 00:13:42:14
Michelle Rivera
We started rentals to help keep pets healthy. That’s one of the things that a lot of our lower income pet owners struggle with is you get an elderly pet and they end up with bad teeth. Very, very expensive to get that done. So we focus on those urgent cases of elderly pets who might have some bad teeth. And then we focus on salon wellness, keeping those teeth clean throughout so they don’t end up with any kind of dental disease.

00:13:42:28 – 00:14:03:26
Michelle Rivera
We have an outreach program and provide dog houses, leashes, collars, pet food, litter, any anything a family might need. It’s a program where they can come in once a month or twice a month to pick up some of the resources that they might need just to help support them along. They might be struggling to feed their own family.

00:14:03:26 – 00:14:34:13
Michelle Rivera
We don’t want them to relinquish their pet because they can’t afford to feed their pet. So we have about 700 families on that program. We also, due to COVID, expanded and went mobile. So we have several mobile units and we are out in the community doing vaccinations. We have a partnership, we call them sit in serves with several partners in the community like Westlake, for instance, will be out at Westlake every Wednesday in a different location of the city.

00:14:34:24 – 00:15:00:10
Michelle Rivera
We do curbside service for those that are shut in or without transportation, as well as doing drive thru clinics every other Saturday where we might see 150 to 200 pets in one single day. And then just recently working with K-State, they we are on their curriculum and they send students in to help us on those mobile efforts and to help our houseless population.

00:15:00:29 – 00:15:02:05
Ruth Baum Bigus
How big is your team?

00:15:03:13 – 00:15:13:00
Michelle Rivera
I think that’s it. We have about 51 employees. I have five full time veterinarians, nine relief veterinarians, and we have over 150 volunteers.

00:15:14:07 – 00:15:28:25
Ruth Baum Bigus
Wow. That’s just incredible. You mentioned this is affordable, so let’s just put it right out there. Yeah. What is pricing like compared to, let’s say, going to another regular vet?

00:15:29:03 – 00:16:00:18
Michelle Rivera
Sure. You know, there are some full service clinics in town that have very reasonable prices. Our prices range from 125 to 250. For spay neuter, let’s say a very large dog is going to cost 250 $300 here. It’s going to cost 600 to 800, possibly at a full service vet. Now, keep in mind, this business model and this approach is this is a price that is affordable to some, but not to everybody.

00:16:00:27 – 00:16:24:13
Michelle Rivera
So if what we do is encourage pet owners who can afford that to pay as much as they can towards the services, then that helps cover those who can’t. So we don’t turn anybody away. We use that financial approach, good customer service, value of services, and encourage people to pay as much as they can towards the services to help the next pet.

00:16:25:21 – 00:16:29:11
Ruth Baum Bigus
You mentioned those crucial volunteers. What role do they play for you?

00:16:30:09 – 00:16:56:19
Michelle Rivera
We allow our volunteers to do pretty much anything here and they are in the mornings. They’re helping us run pets in and out of vehicles. We have volunteers trained to be technicians in recovery and vaccination clinics. They go out on mobile clinics. They do a lot of preparations out of our clinics. They get things ready for a surgery team or for a food pantry.

00:16:57:00 – 00:17:16:08
Michelle Rivera
They help with administration. We have a lot of volunteers that come in and help with data entry, help with phones, just pretty much everything a lot of volunteers like. And enjoy our offsite clinics that are pretty much run by our volunteers as well as going out on outreach and going door to door.

00:17:17:04 – 00:17:22:14
Ruth Baum Bigus
Remind us, how many offsite clinics are those, those Wednesdays at a Westlake and things like that.

00:17:22:22 – 00:17:32:20
Michelle Rivera
Or drive thru in a large, large parking lot where like 150 to 200 cars may line up and then we usually have them through in about four or 5 hours.

00:17:34:06 – 00:17:37:08
Ruth Baum Bigus
How do you get the word out about what you do and what you offer?

00:17:38:06 – 00:18:11:04
Michelle Rivera
So our clientele is based about 80% on word of mouth. We work very, very hard on providing very good customer service and encourage people to tell others about us that along with some marketing into the communities working with neighborhood associations, those drive through clinics, social, social media and we get a lot of referrals from other clinics, shelters and those who are reaching the low income population that might need help.

00:18:11:05 – 00:18:32:21
Ruth Baum Bigus
Because you’re not sheltering these animals, you’re keeping them with their owners. How do you deal with folks who, while they own a pet, may not really know how to care for that animal? Is there a component to your programing that can kind of help steward them along?

00:18:33:27 – 00:18:56:13
Michelle Rivera
Yeah, absolutely. We ask. We actually love that. We occasionally get people that walk in and say, hey, I found this little kitten wandering down a street or a puppy or they took it. I really don’t know what to do. I don’t know if I should keep I don’t even know if I can afford it. So our team will sit down with them and talk to them about all of the resources and the needs that pet might need.

00:18:56:13 – 00:19:15:15
Michelle Rivera
And many times, especially in our kittens and puppies, we have the ability to set them up with a crate and and puppy food and everything they need for that first year of that puppy, making sure it gets its vaccinations and gets spayed or neutered early on so that they can continue to build that bond and keep that pet out of the shelter.

00:19:15:15 – 00:19:27:23
Michelle Rivera
But yeah, we we love to help people and overcome their fear or hesitations of keeping a pet just because they don’t think they can afford it. We always say, if you provide a love, we’ll help you with everything else.

00:19:28:19 – 00:19:39:10
Ruth Baum Bigus
Now what are great phrase? I love that. Yeah. What is the best way for people to find out all this information about what you provide or to volunteer to donate?

00:19:40:07 – 00:20:03:04
Michelle Rivera
Yeah, a lot of our information is on our website of course a PRC KC dot org. But we encourage walk in if you don’t if you want to know more about our programing, you just need to come in and talk to somebody. We’re at 59th interested. You can come in or you can call. We have seven call center representatives that can take your call and talk to you about all the resources that we have.

00:20:03:15 – 00:20:15:19
Ruth Baum Bigus
I want to go back again. You’ve got this huge breadth of services. Spay neuter food pantry on and on. How do you afford this? You do this.

00:20:16:14 – 00:20:50:21
Michelle Rivera
So 80% of our program’s financial revenue comes from what people pay towards the services. So, again, we empower all of our staff to work with everybody. We are a yes organization, even if it’s something we couldn’t do. All of our team make sure that we follow that person down to any referral that they get. So if we refer them out, we make sure that they get to the place that they need and that would be for, you know, something we can’t do in oncology or serious orthopedic issues or something just out of our realm.

00:20:51:18 – 00:21:22:29
Michelle Rivera
But otherwise we just work with every single person through the support of those who can pay for the services. So we tell a lot of people, you know, we’re open and supported because of you. So what you pay and the more you pay towards your pet is going to help other pets in the future. So it’s with that that we’re able to recycle into the I wouldn’t call it profits but because we’re covering our expenses were able to cover everybody across the board.

00:21:23:10 – 00:21:43:07
Michelle Rivera
Now if we were reliant on donations and grants, it might be a little bit more difficult to do that. I could see we’d be in a position where we might have to turn people away because we don’t have the funds, but we are really blessed and thankful to those pet owners who are paying for the full costs prices because they are helping those who can’t.

00:21:44:06 – 00:21:56:23
Ruth Baum Bigus
That’s an interesting model. Many nonprofits don’t operate that way. They’re more a 50 mix, you know, one or the other. I’m fascinated that you’re 80%. So the other 20%, though, where does that come from?

00:21:57:11 – 00:22:25:11
Michelle Rivera
That comes from donations, an annual event. We have an annual gala that brings in about 200,000, and then the rest comes from our donors. We do several appeals, and I think that’s been one of our biggest challenges. It feels like we’ve had to educate the public and our support team kind of on a one by one pace, because until people get in here and hear what we actually do, it’s hard to comprehend and understand what we actually do.

00:22:25:19 – 00:22:46:10
Michelle Rivera
A lot of people assume we’re a shelter because we’re working with animals or don’t understand all of the resources that we provide or that our mission is to actually keep those animals out of the shelter and in the homes with the owners who love them. I think we are also very blessed that we get to see 40,000 pets a year.

00:22:46:11 – 00:23:11:02
Michelle Rivera
These pet owners love their pets and we see that. And that’s a unique experience when you look at anybody on the other side of animal welfare or shelters, animal control, they come across, you know, animals that are abused, neglected owners who are wanting to give up their pets. And so you’re constantly bombarded with that negative side of animal welfare where you may not see the positive side.

00:23:11:02 – 00:23:29:26
Michelle Rivera
And that’s where we get to celebrate and see that positive side. Of course, we see the bad side, too, and have zero tolerance for that, have to work with animal control on some cases. But I’d say 99% of the animals in the pet owners we come across are very, very much love their pets and want to do the right thing.

00:23:31:16 – 00:23:45:29
Ruth Baum Bigus
How do you meet that challenge? You said it’s really getting the public to understand what you do. Hopefully this cast will help spread the word. But how are you trying to kind of change that narrative or, you know, knock down that wall?

00:23:46:08 – 00:24:23:12
Michelle Rivera
Yeah. With our clients, it’s been easy. That just word of mouth. People are telling others about our organization. We have a great reviews, great customer service, but on the donor side of it, yeah, it’s it’s really things like this your program right now that will help get the word out and giving people tours and talking to them just on how important our mission is to the future of keeping head of our population under control and keeping cats in their homes and, you know, my goal is that shelters, their cages, their spaces, their shelter is meant for animals who truly need to be there, not the ones that don’t.

00:24:23:12 – 00:24:40:10
Michelle Rivera
So if there is a resource and I am talking to pet deposit, behavioral, medical, whatever those things are, that’s what we want to be here for is to help those pet owners so they don’t have to break that bond with their pet.

00:24:41:03 – 00:24:51:06
Ruth Baum Bigus
You talked about your pet food pantry. So are you going out there and purchasing food or have you crafted arrangements with organizations? Yeah, we donate.

00:24:51:19 – 00:25:12:13
Michelle Rivera
Very fortunate to get in a steady stream of pet food donations from the general public, from other shelters. Amazon donates several pallets of food. And then we have other partners across the nation who may swing through Kansas City and drop off a semi full of food and then we also share that with rescue groups and others that need it.

00:25:13:24 – 00:25:36:25
Ruth Baum Bigus
We started our conversation about you sharing that you had been in a corporate job. Life had given you some changes that that you made that connection, that to help with you. How has being someone from the corporate setting aided you now in being a nonprofit leader for a number of years in an area you didn’t even ever think you’d probably be doing?

00:25:38:02 – 00:25:58:07
Michelle Rivera
Well, I am an entrepreneur at heart. Funny story. When I was in second grade, my teacher told my mom that I wanted to be a businesswoman and carry a briefcase and I guess that’s been my mission ever since. I’ve been in a lot of jobs where I’ve moved to the top or how to move on because I hit a wall.

00:25:58:17 – 00:26:24:06
Michelle Rivera
And then this passion of animals that I came to love at the shelter and then the entrepreneurship side of me, it just met both needs that I had at the time where I really wanted it for that shelter to be successful and I wanted to be successful making a difference in our community. I my first dog came from that shelter and she saved my life.

00:26:24:07 – 00:26:28:21
Michelle Rivera
She changed my life. And I think, sorry.

00:26:29:25 – 00:26:30:19
Ruth Baum Bigus
That’s okay.

00:26:31:02 – 00:27:02:09
Michelle Rivera
Remembering that that she truly saved my life. I wouldn’t be here today without her. I know that feeling. So I can relate to people who might be struggling. And the last thing I need to do is worry about their pet. They need their pet when they come home. They might be having a hardship that we can’t understand every day that they’re dealing with, whether it’s feeding their family, paying their bills, medical or health issues, that pet might be the only thing that’s keeping them alive.

00:27:02:11 – 00:27:20:24
Michelle Rivera
I’ve heard this story time and time again. I’ve been in households where that’s the case, and so I want to be here and leave a legacy for everybody to have access to all the resources they need to keep their pets healthy and and continue to keep that bond strong.

00:27:22:06 – 00:27:32:10
Ruth Baum Bigus
You know, only if they can talk to us. You know, they do talk to us. But if we could really, totally understand what they were saying, I think we probably get a lot of wisdom, don’t you?

00:27:32:15 – 00:27:57:23
Michelle Rivera
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We understand in our hearts they’re there for us. It’s an unconditional love. And I’m just. I wish we could bottle up what we see here and give it to everybody because it is amazing. You know, even yesterday I was struggling a little bit. Yesterday, all it took was for me to go out into the lobby and sit with some clients and talk to them.

00:27:57:23 – 00:28:20:15
Michelle Rivera
And it’s just it makes a world of difference to hear from them how important we are here, how important my staff is to them, and the services that we provide. And I don’t get many opportunities like this because we’re so busy to sit down and reflect on this. So thank you for this too. It’s very nice to reflect back and remind what we’re doing here.

00:28:20:22 – 00:28:29:22
Michelle Rivera
Despite the crazy chaos and the busyness every day, it’s nice to take it back and and understand the bigger picture here of what we’re doing.

00:28:31:00 – 00:28:52:15
Ruth Baum Bigus
And really see the mark that you’re leaving in Kansas City for people, you know, one people, one person at a time, you know. And that’s, I think, the joy of working in the nonprofit community. I’m sure there are times that are frustrating for all of us, but it’s you know, it’s that take that moment to breathe and look at what you’re doing and what you’re accomplishing and you’re accomplishing so much.

00:28:52:15 – 00:29:16:09
Ruth Baum Bigus
Michelle We’re so grateful that we’ve gotten to share this with our audience. It’s the Pet Resource Center of Kansas City. Check them out. They’re doing wonderful work. Thank you, Michel. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. For KC Cares, Kansas City’s nonprofit voice were produced by Charitable Communications, which is also a nonprofit. This KC Cares segment was brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

00:29:16:09 – 00:29:41:02
Ruth Baum Bigus
WW W document that or if you’d like to be a guest on KC Cares or underwriting opportunities, go check out our web site KC Cares online dot org and spread the love you’ll find us on Facebook and Twitter at KC Cares Radio and on Instagram at KC Cares online. Don’t forget, you can catch us Saturday mornings on ESPN 15:10 a.m. and 94.5 FM.

00:29:41:02 – 00:29:46:19
Ruth Baum Bigus
That’s at 8 a.m.. Thanks for joining us. And KC Cares.

Previous Episodes!