Meet Berkley Cameron | Vice President One Love Foundation Inc, President of Locks 4 Paws

We had the good fortune of connecting with Berkley Cameron and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Berkley, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I have always been very passionate about volunteering and have gotten much more back from giving than getting. I have volunteered with many non profit groups to gain experience and learn as much as I could about how I could do even more in my community and abroad. A lot of people want to help but sometimes don’t know how to start. I found it very important to just start doing something and that would lead to my passion and true calling. Going on an animal rescue mission to Aruba in 2020and seeing what the situation was there with the over 30,000 stray and abused animals lead me to my calling. When I left there I just knew I could make a difference and that I had to do more. Learning from some of the best animal rescue foundations in Chicago I had a knowledge of some changes that I envisioned bringing to Aruba. I knew I had to start right away as the situation was dire and there were very few US based organizations solely focusing on helping the animals there. I helped start the 501C 3 with Ellen Sirianni who I met on the trip and had the same goals in mind and One Love Foundation Inc was born in June of 2020. Our mission is to help change the lives of Aruba’s street animals by generating funds, raising awareness, and educating people. We help various local rescues with supplies, vet care, shelter, and spay and neuter assistance. We raise awareness of the number of homeless, neglected, abandoned, sick and hungry animals there are. Our final goal is to educate on the variety of ways people can help from afar or while vacationing in Aruba.

People always ask why Aruba? Aruba is an island so once their supplies are out such as kitten and puppy milk it is out and they can’t get anymore. It is very hard to transport animals off the island so many are stuck there for their entire lives. There is also no spay and neuter initiative or any government help with this.
To date we have raised almost 50K for the work we are doing in Aruba including to help with Animal Welfare Alliance Aruba, the first spay and neuter free clinic that will be going up in Oct. Our newest initiative Locks4Paws is to help keep more animals with their owners and help struggling families with food and supplies for their pets. Pets are more than animals, they are family and family matters. Lock4Paws is pending 501C 3 and will be able to provide critter cupboards with pet food and supplies to owners in need around the island.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

In my professional life I sell cardiology software for Philips medical systems. I really enjoy helping people to live longer and have a better outcome with their disease. I used to not have a very good work/life balance and it really interfered with my relationships and also kept me from pursing my passion of helping animals and finding my purpose. I now after starting the two 501C 3 organizations have a much better take on life and what is important and am much better at juggling work and my time away from work. I also think my sales knowledge has really helped me in growing the 501C 3 because I am thinking about everything from a business point of view as well. A lot of people want to help save animals but don’t have a plan or understand what it is going to take to get the backing and funding needed to get there and how to manage the daily operations. I am very thankful that my career helped me with this.

I also am an avid runner and have run over 50 marathons raising money for various charities. I have raised over 60K in my time running and have met some of the most amazing people through running and fundraising. I now can combine my two favorite things running and helping animals. I will be running the Berlin, Chicago, and NYC marathons this fall raising money for spay and neuter for One Love Foundation and for food and supplies for the food lockers for Locks 4 Paws. I am very proud of this work and it also helps keep me grounded and helps with the stress of life. I used to deal with a lot of anxiety and depression and this has helped me to be a better person so I can then give back more of myself to help others.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Not sure if you want places in AZ or where I live.

I just got back from Flagstaff, AZ for a running camp and absolutely fell in love with the place! What a beautiful city and the restaurants are amazing. I loved checking out all the different hiking trails there. Some of my favorite restaurants were Tourist Home Cafe for Brunch. For dinner I really enjoyed the Lotus Lounge that had amazing cocktails and sushi and a wonderful atmosphere. Finally local juicery for the best smoothies and healthy snacks.

In Chicago I love telling people to take the architectural tour of the city by boat. It is a great tour of the city and you really learn a lot of interesting history. I also would check out the River Walk where there are so many good restaurants, wine bars, and coffee shops along with boat tours and party cruises. Check out Oak Street Beach and North Ave Beach where you can feel like you are at the ocean and visit the little pop up bars and restaurants. My favorite hidden place is Lake Breeze on Osterman Beach.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I really have to give a shout out to Safe Humane Chicago and Cynthia Bathurst. I was on the board of Safe Humane and did a lot of volunteer work with their YSVP program who helps at risk dogs and at risk youth and also the court case dog programs. Cynthia has been in animal welfare for a long time and has come up with unique programs to help the human animal bond and to help dogs that were otherwise put down at the city shelter because they were part of the court system. The work she has done and the lives she has changed through these programs were very eye opening and where I got to thinking outside the box on programs that could help both people and animals. There is a very close connection between human abuse and animal abuse so education is so key to our young people. There is nothing like seeing a thrown away dog help a child who also feels thrown away. This experience is what gave me the confidence that I may be able to recreate some of these ideas in Aruba.

I also need to give a shout out to Kristen Gerali at Alive Rescue, Heather Owen at One Tail at a Time and Margie Swift at Starfish Animal Rescue in Chicago where I have also volunteered. They all have very unique fundraising opportunities which helped with my fundraising background and they run very top notch rescues that are making a huge impact in Chicago. The idea of keeping pets with their owners through help with food lockers and going out into the community with vaccine clinics and helping people not have to surrender their pets to the city shelter by helping with vet care all came from volunteering with these organizations and top notch women. Also working with Jenny Schlueter at Chicago Animal Care and Control gave me a lot of insight into how a large open access shelter in a city with very little monetary help can go from euthanizing almost all the animals to over a 98% save rate now. Learning about transporting from high kill shelters and implementing programs to help high kill shelters has been so beneficial to my knowledge of how to help in Aruba.

Lastly, I have to give a shoutout to my dad Gary Cameron who has always been an animal lover and who has always rescued stray cats, and farm animals when I was growing up in Iowa. He raised me to help anything in need and to love all creatures. They have a hard enough life without humans harming them he would always say.

Website: onelovefoundationinc.org locks4paws.org

Instagram: onelovefoundationinc bcameron1220 locks4paws

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