Volunteer Spotlight: Emily Cooperman

At City Dogs Rescue, we can’t thank our volunteers enough! Their hard work and dedication drive the work we do, and we want to highlight their efforts. We hope to give you a look into the heart of our organization through our Volunteer Spotlights Series.

Our first Volunteer Spotlight featured Lee Betancourt, our applications supervisor and adoption/foster applications counselor. This spotlight will feature Emily Cooperman, a CDR foster assistant, intake coordinator, alumni coordinator and occasional application counselor.

Emily grew up in Boston, Massachusetts and has been in DC since 2009. When she isn’t “incessantly pushing foster-dogs on Facebook” as she describes, Emily enjoys hanging out with her friends and her dog Emmy, who she adopted from CDR in February 2014. She also enjoys working and doing pottery. 

Emily first got involved with City Dogs Rescue when she saw a friend RSVP on Facebook for a happy hour benefiting the organization. She explained, “I had wanted to do more volunteer work (having dogs involved was an obvious plus), so I looked up their website and applied to foster.“

Since getting involved with CDR and adopting a dog, Emily has been most surprised by the camaraderie and social aspects of the community. Emily never had dogs growing up, she just thought they were cute and fun to play with, so she had no idea what to expect when getting involved with animal rescue and adoption. She said, “I never would have expected how much richer my life would become once I got Emmy.” Emily has met many acquaintances and friends through CDR, at the dog park, and even just walking her dog around the neighborhood. Emily says that her dog has added so many intangible things to her life she didn’t know she was missing. 

When asked what she wished other people knew about CDR, Emily said that the alumni and volunteer networks are such a huge asset to the organization, and are helpful and supportive to adopters and fosters, new and experienced. She also wishes that people knew we surpassed 2,500 dog adoptions!