By Liz Moser, Development Coordinator
If you have visited Animal Friends’ campus, you have surely seen our signs hanging proudly, designating our shelter as the Caryl Gates Gluck Resource Center.
The Resource Center was named in honor of the late wife of Lloyd Gluck, a longtime supporter of Animal Friends and a fierce animal advocate.
Mr. Gluck’s love of animals started in his childhood with his first pet, a collie named Dorothy. While Mr. Gluck and Caryl, and later Mr. Gluck’s second wife, Virginia, treasured their pets, they also had a vision of a more compassionate future for animals, the people who love them and the community as a whole.
It was this shared vision that brought the Glucks to Animal Friends and started a long and beautiful relationship built on shared values and a deep commitment to companion animals. Mr. Gluck put his support behind our mission wholeheartedly beginning in the 1950s with a donation to help pay for a new roof for the shelter. An attorney by trade, Mr. Gluck remained an active supporter and advisor over the years, fundraising for Animal Friends and donating his legal expertise as a member of the organization’s advisory board. Mr. Gluck joined the Animal Friends Board of Directors in 2000 and was on the forefront of planning our current campus. With a bold dream to change the way an animal shelter can serve the community, Mr. Gluck led the charge with a generous donation to build a unique center to house our lifesaving efforts. Thanks to his gift, that dream became a reality.
Since the Caryl Gates Gluck Resource Center opened in 2006, tens of thousands of animals and people have passed through our doors and been touched by our work. When Mr. Gluck passed away in 2011, the world lost a kind soul and a tremendous animal advocate, and Animal Friends lost one of its most passionate supporters.
However, Mr. Gluck’s legacy of generosity and compassion lives on – not just through our shelter building or numerous tributes around our campus, but through his charitable trust. Since 2014, funds from the Lloyd E. Gluck Charitable Trust have supported our lifesaving efforts and carried on the vision Lloyd Gluck had for our community. Funds from the trust have supported numerous programs and
initiatives at Animal Friends over the years. The trust has been instrumental in supporting our transfer program, allowing us to work with small rural shelters and organizations in other states to give their residents a new lease on life here at Animal Friends. Funding from the trust has also allowed us to expand the services offered by our Chow Wagon Pet Food Bank, allowing us to serve even more families and keep more pets in their loving homes. From supporting the care and enrichment of our residents to expanding programs and services, we are grateful for the support of the Lloyd E. Gluck Charitable Trust, as well as the many other charitable trusts and family funds that support our lifesaving mission.