Jackie's Decades of Support for Pet Partners

Jackie Gunby recently retired as the Coordinator at Shriner's Hospital for Children in Northern CA. Jackie witnessed first-hand the benefits of therapy animal visits, not only for the patients but for the medical staff as well. During the pandemic, while teams are not allowed to visit the hospital, Jackie has heard from the medical staff how much they miss these visits. Given Jackie's long-time experience with therapy animal visits, she understands how much these visits are missed and looks forward to learning that they have resumed when it is safe.

Jackie has been involved with Pet Partners for more than twenty years. One could surmise that Jackie knows all the ins and outs of the organization. Not only is she a registered handler, she has also been a National Program Educator, a past member of the Board of Directors, an evaluator, a mentor to new teams and most recently she has become a member of the Caring Community, a group of individuals who have included Pet Partners in their estate plan.

Growing up between Sacramento and Santa Cruz, CA, Jackie is a daughter of an educator. She has always believed in the power of learning throughout one's lifetime. She appreciates the on-going educational opportunities that Pet Partners offers through coursework that is available to handlers. Furthermore, her involvement in Pet Partners has led Jackie to develop other interests surrounding animals for Jackie. She credits that being involved with animals has led her to dive deeper into the areas of genetics of animals, animal behavior issues and even neuroscience.

As complicated as those topics may be, one thing that was not complicated was Jackie's decision to add Pet Partners to her estate plan. Jackie simply added Pet Partners to her will to receive a percentage of her estate. This allows her to remain in control of her estate during her lifetime. Jackie hopes that her legacy gift will provide the opportunity for Pet Partners to continue to register more teams as well as provide additional niches for therapy animal teams to fit into, such as incarcerated youth and mental health professions.

With her many years of participation in Pet Partners, Jackie added that "Pet Partners has been a pivotal point of my life. I have had the opportunity to meet new people and learn new things. The organization has been a gift to my life, and I am so pleased with the direction that Pet Partners is headed. As life moves forward and each of us updates and reviews our final documents, it's not complicated! Just say "Add that Pet Partners receives a portion of your estate distribution!"

We are grateful for the many roles that Jackie has participated in and continues to be active with, along with her rescue Pitbull, Gurdy. The knowledge that she has included Pet Partners in her estate plan is yet another example of Jackie's thoughtfulness and generosity.

For more information on how to include Pet Partners in your estate plan, please contact Mary Bohmke at [email protected] or visit petpartners.giftlegacy.com.