Today we’d like to introduce you to Diana Topjian.
Hi Diana, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
A friend of mine, living in GA, was very interested in starting a rescue. She had been helping shelters network pups for about 10 years. My husband and I have always contributed to rescues, however; I wanted to do more than financial support. My background is in healthcare and I’ve spent 40 years helping humans and I now wanted to turn my attention to the poor souls who have no voice.
From our desires sprung Freedombridgeanimalrescue. We became a 501c3 the latter part of 2019. After just over a year, I decided to get our own 501c3 and name our rescue Freedombridgeanimalrescue-nc. There were no issues, just confusing for folks as to where the pups were potentially available.
I was still working full time in a job that required a fair amount of travel. I was able to get a couple of volunteers to help me and we kept the number of pups we had to a minimum to assure we could manage them properly.
Once I retired, we were able to markedly increase our footprint here in the Wilmington area. We were able to establish an excellent Board who helped me further our mission.
We currently have 10-12 volunteers; over 20 fosters (as we are a foster-based rescue) and significant support from our local community.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The challenges were great. I had never been part of the rescue world, so I was very “green” as to how things worked, what I needed to do, etc. I was fortunate that my friend in GA had familiarity however requirements are different state to state so it was a learning process.
Add to that, that I was still working full-time, and out of state most of the time, there were some hurdles that needed to be overcome. For example, recruitment of more volunteers and fosters; establishment with local animal shelters to build a trusting relationship; as well as working with a vet hospital to establish us as a legitimate rescue.
The benefit, for me, was that I am a nurse, so that was helpful with knowledge as it related to medical pups that were in our care.
Finances were also (and at times, still are), a big challenge. We weren’t known in our community yet, so financial support took a fair amount of time to establish relationships with businesses to partner with us in terms of fundraisers and/or hosting us for pre-adoption events.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As I shared, we are a foster-based pup rescue in Wilmington. We primarily work with 2 shelters (1 of which is very rural). Our goal is to help those pups that are either in danger of being euthanized due to time or medical OR to help the pups that are so scared that people walk right past them. Because we focus on medical pups when there’s a need, it’s important for us to have support of our community. We are a fully volunteer-based rescue with little to no overhead. We are also a small rescue and work hard to assure our fosters feel supported through the fostering process.
I am most proud of how we have been able to expand our footprint, in terms of businesses supporting us, along with a significant expansion of our foster and volunteer network. I am proud that we have a community whose goals align and help us to be the voice for the voiceless.
Looking back today from where we first started, I cannot how grateful I am for our growth, our reputation, and most importantly, our ability to help so many medical/scared pups that may not have had a chance otherwise.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I think the two biggest risks from my perspective was, 1. do I move from a profession that I knew and will my skills translate to a completely different venue and 2. do we have what it takes to excel in our rescue and assure we are doing the very best we can for any pups/puppies under our care. This meant assuring we had a good screening process for our fosters & adopters. It meant building a trusting relationship with the local shelters we were going to be working with, along with assuring that we remained transparent with all our practices, etc.
Not having done this before, and essentially starting from scratch, was in and of itself, a risk. Fortunately, I found folks with the same passion as me, some with more knowledge in this arena than me & a level of commitment to these poor souls that humble me every day!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://freedombridgeanimalrescuenc.org
- Instagram: @FBAR.NC
- Facebook: Freedombridgeanimalrescuenc
