Longtime Buddy volunteer will always be remembered
The Buddy Foundation is very sad. We have lost one of our family. Dottie Phillips passed away on Thursday, June 19.
Dottie was with Buddy from the beginning. Two months into our creation, we were given the gracious donation of an answering service. We asked Dottie if she would call in for our messages and return them. Dottie said, " Do I have a choice?" Jan and I looked at each other and said, "No." And Dottie said, "I'd love to do it."
Dottie's volunteer commitment grew from calling back one to two people a week to returning at least 10 phone messages a day. Always returning the messages the same day they were called in, she sometimes worked until midnight to reach the people who called. She estimated she returned about 3,500 phone messages a year. Dottie was on "phone duty" for 13 years, helping the animals of The Buddy Foundation. She was amazing.
Beatrice "Dottie" Phillips was born June 11, 1927, in Great Britain to David and Ethel Barr. She died June 19, 2014. Dottie was a nurse in Scotland during World War II. She then immigrated to the United States. She was extremely proud the day she became a citizen. As her last employment, she was a hearing officer for the Illinois Secretary of State. Dottie was preceded in death by her husband John J. Phillips.
Dottie loved animals and did everything she could for them. She did adoption days, worked during our rummage sales and stood on corners for our donation days. She fostered a litter of 12 puppies that needed help. I sat with Dottie, Mick and Rey at the registration table for many of our Birthday Parties. She was bright, energetic and fun and always, always working to help the animals.
Dottie helped shape The Buddy Foundation into the organization we are today From your family and friends at the Buddy Foundation and from all of the animals you have helped through the years; "Thank you, Dottie. We miss you."
We know another Angel in Heaven.
• The Buddy Foundation is a nonprofit (501c3), all-volunteer, no-kill animal shelter dedicated to the welfare of stray, abused and abandoned cats and dogs. For more information, call (847) 290-5806 or visit www.thebuddyfoundation.org.