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Lily Burns. Support for her volunteer help.

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Update December 23, 2022. This fundraiser was originally started in July, and we hit our original goal of $10,000. Now, in December, we are raising an additional 10,000 for Lily, and the total goal has been increased to 20,000. That would still amount to less than a dollar an hour for all of the work she has put in, but it would be something to help out with her bills. Thank you to everyone that has chipped in. 


I'm James Branson, founder of the Facebook group, Lost Dogs of King County, a group with 31,000 members. At least 10,000 dogs are reunited with their families every year through this group. It is a vital community asset. Our main goal is to help the dogs, but if you count the value of the dogs we keep out of shelters, getting them home and avoiding shelter stays, we probably save the county hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Recently, I posted that I am on vacation from my work at Three Retrievers Lost Pet Rescue, from July 20th to August 1st. It is so unusual for me to take time off that people were sending me messages asking me if something was wrong. You know you work too much if people think it's weird that you take time off. I am taking time off because the heat makes it too hard for my dogs to work, and also so I can get some other things done. Just today, I realized that in all the years Lily Burns has worked at Lost Dogs of King County, as an unpaid volunteer, she has never taken a day off. I think I remember one time when she took like eight hours off. She works 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, for free. She doesn't do this because she is independently wealthy and she just happens to have a ton of free time on her hands. She helps lost dogs every day because she is good at it, and because she can't not help a lost dog in need. She has never asked for money, but her financial situation is very lean. She misses work for her own business so she can volunteer for the community.

If Lost Dogs of King County was a business and I was the owner, I would be in jail for the inhumane hours that Lily Burns works. Of course, I don't ask Lily to work all day every day. In fact, I frequently suggest that she take time off, but she doesn't listen to me. If LDKC was a business and Lily was an employee, I would probably need to pay her at least $100,000 a year for the hours she works, not counting benefits. If Lily were paid for the lives she makes whole, reuniting families with their dogs, well, that is priceless.

I set a goal of $10,000 for Lily for the remainder of 2022, not because I feel it adequately compensates her for her time or the worth of her work. $10,000 is just a small fraction of what she deserves. A main reason I set a goal of $10,000 is that it would be so easy for a group of 31,000 people to do. It's just 33 cents per member. Probably, there aren't 31,000 active members. Maybe only 10,000 people use this group on a regular basis. That's still just a dollar per active member for all of Lily's hard work.

This is completely voluntary. Lily has never asked for any money for all of her hard work. The group of course would always be available to anyone who needs help with a lost dog, whether they chip in or not. I just thought it would be the least we could do to show our appreciation for all that Lily does, day in and day out, for years. If Lily received ten cents for every time she had to delete a comment or post that violated the groups stated rules, we would have to pay her a million dollars at least. I hope you will chip a little something to show our appreciation for Lily.
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Donations 

  • Nicole Cundy
    • $50 
    • 4 mos
  • Anonymous
    • $50 
    • 4 mos
  • Anonymous
    • $200 
    • 4 mos
  • Stuart DeSpain
    • $50 
    • 4 mos
  • Sara Rook
    • $15 
    • 4 mos
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Organizer and beneficiary

James Branson
Organizer
Seattle, WA
Lily Burns
Beneficiary

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