Local Volunteer Spends 35 Years Helping at PAWS

This video is produced by and for Centre County Report and is shared through a partnership with StateCollege.com. Report by Fiona Daghir.

Every dog has its day, and for Liz Strickler, every days has its dog — or quite a few.

Strickler is dog team coordinator and adoption counselor at Centre County PAWS, and she’s always had a passion for pets. Since 1985, she’s been volunteering at the no-kill shelter committed to finding forever homes for cats and dogs.

Like others at the volunteer-enabled PAWS, she does it out of the kindness of her heart

‘This is how I give back to the world, to the community’ she said.

For 35 years Strickler has been matching up pets with better homes, pets like Charlie, who was recently adopted by Orson and Laney Laurente.

‘Liz has been so great answering all of our questions through the adoption,’ Laney Laurente said. ‘Any questions I had, I was able to call her. Multiple times.’

For Strickler, the question of why she’s done it for so long has a simple answer.

‘The unconditional love and the happiness,’ she said. ‘Dogs here get a tremendous amount of individual care.’

Not just the dogs, but the owners too.

‘It’s the joy on people’s faces, like [the Laurentes] when they got to go home with a new family member’ Strickler said. 

Centre County PAWS, founded in 1980, is located at 1401 Trout Road. For Adoption and Education Center hours and more information about PAWS and its services, visit www.centrecountypaws.org.