Afton Park Place personal support worker (PSW) Jennifer Silver’s love of animals has helped her earn this year’s Steeves & Rozema Quest for Success award in the community service category.

Silver was nominated by her colleagues at the Sarnia long-term care home for her initiative, Cookies for a Cause. Through Cookies for a Cause, which she launched about a year ago, Silver spends much of her time outside of work selling all-natural dog biscuits she bakes, with proceeds going to the Sarnia & District Humane Society.

“It was nice to be recognized for something I didn’t really need recognition for,” the PSW tells S&R Today.

Silver says it was her love for animals that inspired her to start Cookies for a Cause. She had been making homemade biscuits for her two dogs — a husky and a black lab — when people started asking her to make cookies for their pets.

Ingredients in Silver’s dog biscuits include whole-wheat flour, eggs, cheese, garlic and oil.

In her nomination form, PSW Theresa Patterson characterizes Silver as “an avid supporter of community and social events” who spends a lot of her free time baking cakes that are donated and raffled off to support various causes, such as the Afton Park Place’s palliative-care team.

Patterson commends her colleague for her dedication to the causes she believes in and the team spirit she demonstrates through her work.

“(Silver is) an amazing team player and supporter of those that can’t speak for themselves; Jen is an inspiration and truly deserves many heartfelt thanks for what she does,” Patterson writes.

In its nomination form, Steeves & Rozema says the Quest for Success community service award winner should be a “team member who is more than a volunteer; they’ve demonstrated initiative and made an extraordinary commitment of time and effort that has impacted the lives of people in their home town and possibly the world.”

The 11th annual Steeves & Rozema Quest for Success award ceremony was held April 25 at the St. Clair Corporate Centre in Sarnia.

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