About Us

FOLCAS Board

Emily DeHuff
Secretary

Erica Fruh
Fundraising Coordinator

Tony Herman
Treasurer

Bill Humes
President

Judy Sherkow
Volunteer Coordinator

Frank Sherkow
Board Member

WEB Master
Frank Sherkow

For decades, the Lincoln County Animal Shelter’s programs and services have helped thousands of animals and provided benefits to our community.

In late April 2009, the Lincoln County commissioners announced that due to a severe countywide revenue shortfall, the Lincoln County Animal Shelter would be closed to the public on June 30. Four of the five full-time staff positions were slated for elimination, and the shelter was to become a short-term holding facility for dogs picked up by Animal Control. There would be no more dog adoptions, and no more services for cats.

Within two weeks of this announcement, Friends of the Lincoln County Animal Shelter, Inc. (FOLCAS) was formed to be the voice of the many concerned citizens who stepped forward in a united desire to save the shelter. In June, the County commissioners accepted the FOLCAS plan to keep the shelter open for one additional year at virtually the same staffing level.

Today, FOLCAS operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, raising funds and developing programs and strategies to provide long-term funding and management to the Lincoln County Animal Shelter.

In the November 2009 election, 71% of Lincoln County voters approved a property tax that will fully fund the Shelter’s operations, including three Animal Control Officers, until 2015. Today, the Lincoln County Animal Shelter is fully operational.

The flagship of FOLCAS’s fundraising operations is the Pick of the Litter thrift store, opened in July 2009 in a building made available by the County on the fairgrounds in Newport. Thanks to our ever-growing ranks of donors, shoppers, and volunteers, Pick of the Litter has become a thriving success.

FOLCAS also hosts an annual golf tournament at Salishan and produces an annual calendar featuring Lincoln County companion animals.

These projects plus grants, events, and direct donations enable FOLCAS to help the homeless animals of Lincoln County in two important ways:

• FOLCAS pays to spay & neuter all dogs & cats housed at the Lincoln County Animal Shelter before they go to new homes. FOLCAS has paid for all shelter spay/neuters since September 2009—an expense that now exceeds $25,000 per year—in support of the shelter’s 100% pre-adoption spay/neuter policy.

• FOLCAS continues to build a financial reserve to ensure the continued availability of good shelter services in Lincoln County. We conservatively invest the money we raise in order to build an emergency operating reserve in case there is no more public funding for the shelter after the property tax levy expires in June 2015. If it turns out the FOLCAS funds will not be needed for shelter operations, they will be used to help the animals of Lincoln County in other ways.