Volunteer Spotlight: Justin Ulsch
Question: What do you do if you are faced with a literal mountain of mulch dumped at your shelter?
Answer: You get a wheelbarrow and lots of volunteers, including super-volunteer Justin Ulsch, to haul hundreds of pounds at a time to cover every inch of the now-beautiful trails at BARCS, turning them into every dog’s dream.
“The dogs love the trails,” says Justin, who has been a volunteer at BARCS for six years. “They love the smell, love to roll in it.”
Before the mulch could be spread, Justin and other volunteers had to get the area ready, which included picking up trash, trimming branches and turning the area into an oasis for the dogs and their walkers.
“You feel like you’re in the country when you are out on these trails,” Justin says. He loves walking to the top of the fenced-in area up a hill, where in one direction there is a view of the BARCS complex and in the other direction views of the city.
And while the trails have been established, Justin continues to work to make them even more beautiful and enticing. With donated pallets, he is building benches, directional arrows and picnic tables. He also works on the maintenance needed to keep them clean and groomed.
During this period of COVID, maintaining and enhancing the trails has been Justin’s main volunteer activity, but if there is a volunteer job at BARCS, it is more than likely Justin has done it.
When he started at BARCS six years ago, he admits, “I was afraid of dogs,” so he started socializing cats, working his way through all the levels. He then took the plunge and began walking dogs. He also started fostering some of the more challenging dogs, including Tuffy, who was born with a congenital deformity and needed extensive surgery and a body cast. Justin fostered Tuffy for three months before he was adopted by one of the staff at the veterinary hospital that performed his surgery.
Not all of his many fosters have a happy ending. He recalls fostering a beautiful little bulldog who had neurological problems. Despite numerous vet consults and trying everything they could, the dog had to be humanely euthanized. But Justin takes solace in knowing that little dog knew love in her short life.
Justin no longer fosters because his girlfriend, a woman he met at BARCS, has a dog who does not get along with other animals. Naturally, that dog was adopted from BARCS.
While right now the trails take up most of Justin’s volunteer time, he looks forward to getting back to some of the tasks he performed pre-COVID, including a couple of his favorites— greeting visitors and training new volunteers. Since he has done nearly every volunteer job at BARCS, he is a natural to be able to answer any questions a new volunteer might have.
In addition to working on the trails, Justin fills in when needed to walk dogs or socialize cats. He is also a regular volunteer at all the vaccine clinics. In fact, he may be the only volunteer who drives the BFF wagon, BARCS’ unmistakable van, to the clinics!
Despite having completed more than 3,000 hours volunteering, Justin says he never tires of it. “The animals need us,” he says. “No matter if there is COVID, or rain or snow, they are here waiting for us. You know when you are here (at BARCS) you are making a difference in their lives.”
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