Robert Osterhoudt, Karin Stone
My husband, Kevin, and I have recently met a thoroughly remarkable person, a Sun Lakes resident, who has been doing profoundly meaningful and little recognized work in animal rescue and care for nearly 30 years. Cher Bivona and her husband, Tom, of Sun Lakes Country Club began this work on an independent, volunteer basis in 1999 while living in Oregon and they have continued their good deeds in this respect since moving to Arizona in 2012. With uncommon skill, insight, passion, resolve, generosity, and often bravery, they arrange for the capture, neutering, vaccinating, (medical) treatment, fostering, and homing of desperate dogs and cats, animals without other options who are lost or abandoned in the southeast Valley.
In 2025, after many years of informal efforts, Cher established a non-profit organization (a 501(c)(3)), Weezie’s Helping Hands, in order to formally enhance solicitation efforts for her increasingly demanding and costly work. Her organization is nonetheless too small to qualify as a viable candidate for grant assistance and the sparse donations that she has been gratefully receiving are typically slight. She has spent her own family inheritance and substantial bits of her own income to accommodate the burgeoning difference between her expenses and the financial resources available to satisfy those expenses. Her circumstance has become alarmingly critical in recent months.
We know of few people who do better in the world with less and few people in the world who are more deserving of community support than Cher and Tom. If able and inclined, they and the many animals whose lives they save and ultimately fulfill would therefore very much appreciate any assistance that may be offered to them, either in terms of volunteer work, fostering, adopting, or monetary donations. They may be found at: www.weezieshelpinghands.org, weezieshh@gmail.com, 623-800-3718.