May 2016 – Meet the Team
When did you and Faith become a team? – Faith and I are going on 5 years as a TASA team, but Faith was a partner to Carlynn Ricks from 2007 until 2014. We overlapped for a few years.
What other partners have you had? – My previous partner was a female Golden Retriever named Morgan who was a therapy dog at Warm Springs Rehab hospital for about 10 years.
In what type of facility are you visiting? – Due to her age (she is now 11) and physical limitations, Faith retired from working at Warm Springs Rehab about 2 years ago. We are now helping out with TASA interventions in the juvenile justice system.
In what other Therapy Animals activities do you and your partner participate? – Faith and I have been helping with whatever community outreach opportunities come up, particularly the college de-stressors.
Tell us something about your partner that we may not know. – Despite several health challenges over the years, Faith has had an active life. Aside from her work with TASA, she has earned titles in 7 different sports and is currently working on Tracking and Barn Hunt. Although she was born to be a beauty queen, her first love is retrieving birds on land and water.
What Therapy Animals leadership position(s) do you currently have? -None
What other leadership positions have you had? – None.
Tell us something about yourself that we may not know. – Through my work as a rehab physical therapist, I was able to start and run a full-fledged AAT program at Warm Springs for about 10 years, from about 1990 to about 2000 before I moved on. That program is still running today (and could use a few more TASA teams).
July 1, 2015 – Therapy Team of the Second Quarter – We would like to announce and congratulate Elizabeth “Liz” Shively and Faith who have been selected as our therapy team of the second quarter for 2015!! As one enters the training room at our office, visitors and members can’t help but see the array of animal pictures that are gracing our walls. These photos represent the animal half of our therapy teams. A while back, Liz volunteered to take on the responsibility of updating our walls. This involved her learning many different tasks ranging from computer programming and photo editing, to printing, and finally to displaying the photos. This has been a very time consuming project and as each team renews or new ones join, their special partner’s picture will adorn the wall with the others. Liz has also participated in other activities with her partner Faith including mentoring new members, group activities, and the Pooch Parade.
Liz commented that “I have really enjoyed the opportunity to work on the photo wall since I get to look at all the wonderful doggie faces of TASA. It takes a lot of time but I am glad for the opportunity to contribute to TASA. I appreciate everyone’s patience as I learn new photo editing skills, since I learn something new with each photo I work on. Also, I am grateful to TASA for opening new doors for Faith and me to continue to be of service to the community as we deal with various health challenges.”
Thank you Liz for all your service.
