To evacuate and shelter livestock and small animals anywhere in the State of Washington when a natural or man-made disaster occurs.

Description:
When activated by the County or State Office of Emergency Management, WASART's trained volunteers will evacuate animals in disasters and temporarily shelter them until they can be reunited with their owners. When in the shelters, currently being established within the State, our volunteers will provide care for the animals as well as emergency veterinary services.
WASART also develops and delivers training opportunities for agencies and individual volunteers to facilitate a safe, effective and efficient response to animal emergencies. Eventually, WASART will train volunteers in other counties within Washington to respond to animal related emergencies in disasters. These county teams will be called CARTs (County Animal Response Teams).
WASART also educates the public, through seminars and workshops, public meetings with guest speakers, pamphlets, e-mail broadcasts and newsletters, etc., on how to prepare emergency plans for themselves and their livestock and small animals.

History:
WASART is a grass-roots, all volunteer, 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization whose first meeting was held in Enumclaw, WA in February, 2007. The organization was incorporated in Washington on May 14, 2007 and it's Board of Directors were elected on August 29, 2007 when the Bylaws of the organization were adopted.
Since February, 2007, WASART has sponsored a Livestock Identification Clinic, participated in an Emergency Preparedness Fair, and disseminated information in the form of a trifold brochure and flyers on emergency preparedness. Members of the WASART BOD have been presenters at a Sound Shake 08 workshop sponsored by the State's Office of Emergency Management in preparation for the regional earthquake exercise in March, 2008, given interviews on the radio on WASART's goals and activities, and have participated in several trainings and table top exercises on large animal rescue, containment of foot and mouth disease, sheltering management, CERT, ham radio certification, etc.
The training curriculum was recently finalized and training of volunteers for three levels of activity and involvement in WASART will commence in February, 2008.
General meetings are held on the second Wednesday of each month at the Key Bank in Enumclaw, commencing at 6:30 p.m.

Contact people:

Gretchen McCallum, President, (phone), (email) Greta Cook, Vice President, (phone), (email) Mary Ann Bentley, Treasurer, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (360) 886-2362

Address:

30718 SE 358th Street Enumclaw, WA 98022 This location is NOT handicap accessible (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.washingtonsart.org

Directions:

North from Enumclaw, WA on the Veazie-Cumberland Road about 9 miles; left on S.E. 352nd Street; left on 309th AVenue; right onto S.E. 354th Street until reach the above address.   Nearest Bus Stop: 9 miles

Miscellaneous Information

Liability
	No
Does your organization welcome court-ordered community service volunteers?
	No
Does your organization have volunteer positions for youth 12-18?
	No