Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Tyler Wancowicz is on a mission to build a “shelter without walls.” 

The Paw Print Project is in the beginning stages of becoming a nonprofit organization. Its goal is to be a hub of information, volunteers, and other resources for brick-and-mortar animal shelters. 

“It empowers the regular, everyday person who wants to make a difference in animal rescue or animal welfare,” Wancowicz said. “The Paw Print Project will essentially be the entire back end network support system that people can apply, get vetted, and trained through us to grow their network of volunteers and strategic partners and work with the rescues in their communities to temporarily place animals and then permanently place them.”

Before the Paw Print Project was born, Wancowicz said he and his wife, Brianna, started a Facebook group called Hampton Roads Animal Foster Network. With 640 members, the group serves as a way to connect people and help temporarily or permanently rehome dogs.

Tyler said it’s been “refreshing” to see so many strangers help each other out, and inspired him to reimagine the same concept in a bigger way.

Starting the project also helped him transition out of the Navy after serving for 11 years, he said. After a lot of self-reflection and generally being an animal lover, he found himself thinking about the challenges animal shelter’s face.

“What makes it difficult for people to get animal welfare? Why is it so hard opening a shelter?” he said. “Space, legality, insurance, all those different things really make it difficult. But what if we took all of that away and made it super simple.”

Now, Tyler is acting as president of the Paw Print Project Board of Directors, and he and his wife are interviewing for other board positions.

Within the first month of promoting the project, Tyler said they’ve received around 50 applications and completed around 20 interviews. He’s hoping to have a full board of seven or eight people by mid-June and then file for a 501C to become an official nonprofit. The goal is to have the whole project up and running by the end of the year. 

“We got way more interest than I think we thought [we would],” Brianna said. “Starting from scratch, you can’t really see how it’s going to be. So it’s been super exciting to interview these people and get to know people and see, kind of, where they would fit into our mission that we’re trying to do.”

In order to help get the project up and running, Tyler is competing in an Inked Magazine tattoo contest to win $25,000. He made it to the top 10, and is currently competing to be in the top five.

Brianna said there is still much more research to be done about what goes into making a nonprofit, but they’re ready to take on the challenge. 

After forming the Board of Directors, Brianna said they will have to make bylaws and establish committee leaders.

“I think we kind of just have to meet as a Board and see what our expectations and standards are going to be,” she said. “And then also see who on our Board can bring valuable input that maybe we weren’t thinking about.” 

Overall, Tyler said he’s both excited and nervous about starting the project, but he’s excited about how things are going so far.

“I think that if there’s something you want in the world, no one else is going to make it for you, so you might as well just go and make it yourself,” he said.