For many American homeowners, the economic recession has dealt a harsh, sustained set of blows. Unemployment rates remain perilously high, and foreclosures continue apace. While most states have experienced their share of miseries, Michigan in particular has borne the brunt of bad times. Fortunately, an organization exists whose sole purpose is to assist those who desperately need a helping hand.

Founded in late 2004, Community Sharing is a non-profit outreach agency that serves food and provides support to hundreds of families and their companion animals. While they do not rescue pets directly, they save them every day. Community Sharing provides food, veterinary care and pet supplies, allowing families in financial straights to keep their companion animals at home, where they belong, keeping families together.

But that’s not all. This compassionate group’s greater mission is the provision of food, clothing, educational and emergency financial assistance to those in need while respecting their dignity and fostering their future independence. The vast majority of their aid recipients include the recently unemployed and the working poor. Overseen by a board of twelve members and operated by a group of over 100 volunteers, Community Sharing provides support to over 300 families and more than 1,000 individuals every month. Doing their level best to keep up with the prolonged needs of their fellow citizens, Community Sharing has pursued their mission of caring with unrelenting resolve.

When speaking about their work, Community Sharing shared the following quote from Henry David Thoreau: “It often happens that a man is more humanely related to a cat or dog than to any human being.” They know too well that when a pet parent is separated from a companion animal, especially due to financial hardship, spirits can be broken. For people without any other family besides a cat or a dog, losing this last emotional connection can be devastating. As their volunteers have witnessed firsthand, hard times become infinitely more difficult to bear without hope, without a positive relationship to help keep you going.

For the dogs and cats who are surrendered to shelters, often for the first time in their lives, the change can be traumatic. As is unfortunately the case with some shelters, if these companion animals cannot be placed in new homes, their lives will be taken way too soon by euthanasia.

Community Sharing’s fervent goal is to maintain relationships, keeping people and their companion animals in their homes. In addition to the services listed above, this non-profit also provides assistance in fighting evictions, preventing utility shut-offs, handling emergencies, offering legal advocacy … even tutoring for eligible students residing in local communities. Helping all of their clients to rise above their present circumstances and achieve financial independence is the ultimate goal of Community Sharing.

According to Board Member Barb Maher, with the funding from the Dr. Jane's HealthyPetNet Foundation, they were able to keep their pet pantry stocked for a full three months. She was pleased to add, “We were also able to provide treats and toys to pets that otherwise would be in local animal shelters”. To illustrate just how many companion animals were helped by your donations, here are the exact numbers of those receiving aid for the months funded by our grant …

Thanking Dr. Jane, our Foundation Board Members, and all of our customers who made this award possible, Maher said, “I do not know what we would have done without your support”.

From all of us here at Life’s Abundance headquarters, we deeply appreciate and respect the extraordinary example this committed network of rescuers sets for all Americans … extending helping hands to neighbors in need. Along with our financial award, we’d like to convey our heartfelt thanks to Community Sharing for doing their utmost to make the world a kinder, gentler place for people and pets alike.

If you would like to help support our foundation, you may do so when placing an order online or by sending a check to Dr. Jane’s HealthyPetNet Foundation, Inc. at P.O. Box 1425, Palm City, FL 34991. Even if you can only spare a dollar or two, you’ll be providing much needed aid to America’s pet-rescue organizations, which are on the front lines of the fight to reduce and eliminate pet abandonment, neglect and abuse in America.