Episode 11 – How Partner is Helping the Most Vulnerable Pets
April is Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month, and “We Can Help” is at the core of everything Partner does, including our ability to help animals who have been subjected to cruelty. In this episode, we have an open discussion about Animal Protection with Hospital Steward Christy Schwartz and ER Dr. Erica Ditzler, both from Partner’s Richmond hospital. Both Christy and Dr. Ditzler have tremendous experience in helping the communities’ most vulnerable dogs and cats, and help lead the Partner team of caregivers in navigating these difficult cases. We discuss how Partner has been instrumental in helping neglected and abused animals in the Richmond community, and learn how people can help support animal protection organizations in their own communities.
What You’ll Learn?
- How Partner can help in the legal process when charges are brought against abusers.
- How people can learn about neglect and abuse case laws within their own community.
- How Partner helps its caregivers handle the conversations around animal welfare and the cases they see.
- Success stories of animals who have been helped thanks to Partner. (Note: This is an open discussion about animal cruelty, and there are some slightly graphic descriptions that might be difficult to hear.)
- How groups like Goochland Pet Lovers, The Tommie Fund, and others are making a difference in the Richmond community.
- How you can help be a part of giving these animals a second chance at life.
Please visit the following groups to learn how you can help.
Richmond Community Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter requests direct donations. Visit https://hanoverva.animalservices.webs… to learn more.
Goochland Pet Lovers and the Richmond Animal Care & Control Foundation both offer information about the Tommie Fund.
https://www.goochlandpetlovers.com/
https://www.raccfoundation.org/
Frederick & Washington Counties Frederick County Animal Control:
https://frederickcountymd.gov/15/Anim...
Humane Society of Washington County:
Are you a veterinary professional looking to make a difference? Learn more about Partner and how you can join our team by visiting our careers page at https://partnervesc.com/careers/.
[Music]
Narrator:
Welcome back to “Did You Know?”, a podcast by Partner Veterinary. In this series, we explore all things veterinary medicine and all things Partner. In each episode, we answer some of the most common questions we are asked—from HR to emergencies and everything in between. If it happens at Partner, we’ll cover it.
As April’s Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month draws to a close, we’re tackling a challenging but crucial topic: animal protection. Join us for a powerful conversation with two frontline heroes from Partner’s Richmond hospital: Hospital Steward Christy Schwarz and Emergency Veterinarian Dr. Erica Ditzler. Both Christy and Dr. Ditzler have tremendous experience in helping the community’s most vulnerable dogs and cats and help lead Partner’s team of caregivers in navigating these difficult cases. We discuss how Partner has been instrumental in helping neglected and abused animals in the Richmond community and learn how people can help support animal protection organizations in their own communities.
Just a note: this episode includes some slightly graphic descriptions that might be difficult for some listeners to hear.
Christy Schwartz:
“I’m Christy Schwarz. I am the Hospital Steward for Richmond, Virginia. I joined veterinary medicine in 2016 after an extensive stint in human healthcare, and I am happy to be with Partner in serving the Richmond and surrounding area.”
Dr. Ditzler:
“Hey, I’m Dr. Erica Ditzler. I have been with Partner now since February of 2024 as one of their emergency doctors, and I recently just took on the role of House Officer for the internship program, so very excited to see where that’s going to take us.”
Jen Mellace:
Thank you both so much for joining us today on the podcast. April is Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month, and the phrase “We Can Help” is at the core of everything that Partner does and our ability to help animals who have been subjected to cruelty. Christy, we’ll start with you—can you share how Partner has been instrumental in helping neglected and abused animals in the Richmond community?
Christy Schwartz:
“Absolutely. Spinning off of the mission of ‘We Can Help,’ it is super important that Partner is a pillar in these relationships to the community, both with animal protection in each county and in general. The cases that come through the doors at Partner—animal welfare is super important to all of us here at Partner, and making sure that we are putting the patients first and understanding their needs, both for the patient, the hospital, the community, and ultimately the team that is taking care of them. So it’s super important that we are taking this time to discuss this and educating the community on what exactly that looks like for everybody.”
Jen Mellace:
Dr. Ditzler, did you have anything that you wanted to add on that front?
Dr. Ditzler:
“Yeah, so I think it’s very important and a blessing to be at Partner, with certainly having that mission statement of ‘We Can Help.’ At other facilities, I think it turns into ‘Do we have the resources? Do we have the time?’ But we certainly look at things with the intent of ‘We can do it’ and ‘How can we facilitate that?’ So that really stands for our core beliefs and just further puts us out there, like Christie said, as a pillar in our community—as someone that places know they can absolutely turn to. And if we can’t get them in the door at that exact second, we absolutely are going to figure out a way we can help them. So that’s always been very important to us, and we’ve always said yes. That’s been a very important thing to the hospital.”
Jen Mellace:
“Yeah, I imagine when people come to you folks with something like this, it’s such an anxious time for people—not knowing where to go and where to turn. And I think it’s fantastic that Partner gives them that ability to have a place to go to. Dr. Ditzler, outside of Partner, you have quite a role in the community helping these animals and working with different organizations. Can you tell us a little bit about that?”
Dr. Ditzler:
“I moved to the area back in 2016, and before that, I had a small amount of exposure during my internship to some animal protection cases and knew that was something I was going to stay connected with—and certainly, the universe continued leading me in that direction. Moving down here, I was launched into helping with Hanover County Animal Control cases right off the bat and have really developed a close relationship with them throughout the years, being an expert witness on many of their cases and someone they can call up and ask anything they need from a veterinary standpoint. I’ve certainly been involved in a lot of their medical cases throughout the years.
But a stronger connection that I’ve developed is actually within Goochland County itself. I am one of their veterinarians at Goochland County Animal Shelter and Adoption Center, and I am there pretty much all the time outside of being at Partner. Being in that role, I have worked with a lot of cases that certainly have concerns for neglect, abuse, or even client education. That’s the other side of it that I think people forget about—many of these cases are individuals that just need a little extra help and education.
Being a veterinarian has put me in that role, and additionally, I am on the board for Goochland Pet Lovers. We can talk about that a little bit later on, but that has helped me develop even more bonds with our community. Now reaching out, I have worked with other counties and facilities like Richmond, or the City of Richmond, as well as Powhatan County and Chesterfield. So we’re starting to really gather in our resources and knowing that they have a strong place to turn to at Partner—and educating our staff at Partner as well. It’s been a very fun relationship to develop over the last few years with all of these localities and being able to help everybody out.”
Jen Mellace:
“Such a huge undertaking on your part, and just such a blessing that you have this ability to connect all these people and all these resources—and then we have Partner as well that can be a part of that connection. One thing that you said that struck me was that you help educate the clients as well. When you say that, does that also mean people who may have a dog or an animal that they have neglected simply because they don’t know how to care for it, or are most of the cases that you see true neglect/abuse cases?”
Dr. Ditzler:
“Yeah, so it’s a little combination of both. I can kind of think of some recent examples. Being at Goochland County Animal Shelter, we’ve had some dogs brought in that maybe were stray, that appeared injured or maybe underweight—I think those are kind of big general categories. I examine them, we locate the owner, and I’m able to sit down and talk with them about maybe this isn’t an appropriate weight for this dog, and they may not be aware of that for that breed because it was so fluffy, for instance. Or in wintertime, that maybe we do need to have some more water sources available because they’re not going to break through the ice, but this environment is too cold for this breed to be outside all the time.
So a lot of the times, it’s having that one-on-one conversation and being empathetic to their level of education and knowledge. It’s sometimes challenging for us being in this field to see that and maybe take it for granted that we were maybe raised or brought up in a situation where we were given a little more background on it. So that’s a very unique thing—trying to see it from their side of things. But also, it builds a stronger case with the animal protection officers because if they know that these clients have the appropriate resources and we’ve spent the appropriate time talking to them, and yet we’re still in a situation where these pets don’t have the appropriate care or they’re not seeking the appropriate resources we’ve given them, then we can pursue things a little bit harder and a little bit faster. So that’s been a very interesting and unique thing that we’ve been able to bring to the county specifically, but I know that with talking to Hanover and Chesterfield, they also are very strong with educating their clients and making sure that they have the appropriate resources to take care of their pets.”
Jen Mellace:
“That’s great—go ahead, Christie.”
Christy Schwartz:
“Client education is also about talking to the clients about what’s available in the county or the municipality in which they live. So a lot of clients who come in, like Dr. Ditsler said, talk about water resources, food, or rabies clinics. Some of that education is understanding what’s available to them in the locality in which they reside and helping them understand both the laws of the state and locality, but also the resources they have within those laws. And maybe even, if there is financial restriction, what those supports out there are for them so they don’t always have to surrender an animal or they can work in collaboration. That is a lot of what animal protection is about—the collaboration of all of us within the profession, not against one another or in a negative connotation. So I think that’s a lot of what education is also referring to.”
Dr. Ditzler:
“Absolutely. An additional avenue that I’ve been involved with to help in that client education piece and resource piece within our area—working with Goochland Pet Lovers several years ago—did start a new initiative called the Good Neighbor Outreach. It is a free clinic that we hold once a month that’s for people who are at or below the poverty level to help provide basic medical care for their pets. I started this idea along with Dr. Lori Elliott, who is a general practitioner in the area, recognizing there are so many diseases out there that we can prevent by basic veterinary care that will help the whole community. But also, when we’re seeing—she’s another veterinarian at the shelter—we’re seeing people coming in and not having that resource. They want to do these things with their pet, but they may not have the finances or that vaccine clinic or whatever it is available to them.
So we started that, and we’re really taking off and reaching out to people not only in county, but we have recently added in Powhatan as well. So that’s another way that we’re helping out animal protection and animal welfare in our community from a different avenue. And the other side of it that we just recently launched in 2023 was how can we help the community from the start. As I talked about, some of us had the upbringing that has given us that blessing of being able to be more involved, and so we’re actually now starting an initiative within the schools called Teaching Kindness. Now we are in every third-grade class in all of the Goochland County school districts, being able to go in and teach them about animals and animal welfare, which of course translates to empathy for each other and being just more aware of our surroundings as humans and individuals. And that certainly is going to make a big impact in our animal welfare community as it trickles out in the future.”
Jen Mellace:
“Gosh, I just… I love all of that! What a wonderful thing—especially going into the schools and starting these kids young. And the education… not everybody wants their animals to be underweight, you know? They’re not doing this on purpose, and educating the people is such a huge piece of this. It’s so exciting and wonderful to hear that you guys are such a big part of that, and Partner is a part of that as well. Often in some of these cases, criminal charges are brought against true abusers. How can Partner be a part—or how is Partner being a part—of the legal process?”
Dr. Ditzler:
“So I can launch off with that. I think that first, being available to these animal protection officers—they know that we are there for them and that we are willing to accept these cases, and they absolutely can reach out to me or Christy Schwarz at any point in time. Any case that comes in the door, they alert Christy Schwarz right away of the case being in the building, and then we have those resources—not only our veterinarians but our staff members—to be able to reach out to us to know how to intake those animals into our system.
The other side of it is knowing how to document these cases. We document every case, of course, that comes through the door for citizens versus animal control, but it’s just a little bit different—maybe being more direct with our verbiage, or looking at some things and some subtleties, or documenting these subtleties in just a little bit different way so that it’s easier to translate in a legal process.
I think the other side of it is trying to keep, once again, an open mind—how these animals may have ended up in this situation through diagnostics and just asking appropriate questions. A lot of times we’re given very limited information on these animals, but we’re able to then look at it and give kind of those differential diagnoses moving forward. And then the other side of it is being able to go to court for these cases. At this time, I try to be involved in all of the cases that come through when I’m in the building or shortly thereafter take over those cases so that I can be that witness in the court cases.”
Jen Mellace:
“Being familiar with the system, so different communities have different laws and ways of handling neglect and abuse cases—how can people learn about and understand the laws within the community in which they reside?”
Dr. Ditzler:
“Yeah, so thankfully, if you do a quick Google search, you can look up the Virginia state code, specifically those for animal protection, and it’s very thorough. I’ve read through them, and I do have it saved on my phone. Most localities—I should say every locality that I’ve worked with—do have many of these laws published on their website or have a link to those. So that’s one way that people can look into things. It’s just really truly reaching out through the internet and looking at their local animal protection resources that they have.
And then the other side of it is if they have a big question, they certainly can reach out to their local animal protection and leave a message and get a call back from somebody within their service if there’s something very specific that they’re looking into. So just using those two big resources available is just communication with them—I think that’s a big thing.”
Jen Mellace:
“What are some of the ways that our community members can help?”
Dr. Ditzler:
“Yeah, so I think that one of the biggest blessings that I’ve seen evolve through the last few years is being able to have the financial resources to not only take these animals in but provide justice—yes, in a legal sense, but justice for these animals and being able to have a new lease on life through the finance side of it.
When I started years ago, I recall—just back in 2016—having a few hundred dollars per case that came in the door for animal protection, and that really limited us sometimes to just a physical exam and very basic medical care. Our decision then was either euthanasia or sending it back to the shelter with what we call ‘shotgun therapy’—very, very basic things. And that has evolved to now being able to not worry as much and be able to have more finances available to hospitalize these guys, to do some basic diagnostics that not only lead and support our legal case and understanding how these animals got to this point and being able to support ourselves in court to confirm our suspicions, but now we can actually target and treat these guys and keep them in hospital for numerous days.
And how our community can support that is knowing what local rescue groups you may have in the area. I think everybody’s heard of Tommy Fund by now. Tommy Fund has not only supported those animals in the City of Richmond itself but with Hanover County. Recently, we had a case with Goochland County that we had transferred through Buckingham to ourselves, and Tommy Fund helped pay for it. And it’s just been a beautiful thing because these animals who otherwise wouldn’t have had a chance of moving forward are living very full lives, and they deserve it almost more than anybody else because they didn’t get a great start. So looking at Tommy Fund, Goochland Pet Lovers had their huge medical fund as well, but being able to donate to these makes an extremely big impact on these animals’ lives.”
Jen Mellace:
“Yeah, that’s excellent, and we will include links to these various places.”
Christy Schwartz:
“Yeah, another resource in Goochland County that people can donate to and actively participate with is Goochland Cares, and they work very closely with Goochland Pet Lovers to help support families—especially those with children or going through hard times—that need additional support with their pets to help keep them in the home and keep them with the family. So Goochland Cares is another local support that we have that we can work in collaboration with to keep everybody together and get them the resources that they need and connections made for full family support.”
Jen Mellace:
“I love that! We know how much our pets are a support to us, and especially to children. To have a pet separated from a family and from young children would be really awful, so the fact that they’re there to help with that is a wonderful thing. Can you guys share with us some of the success stories that have come through Partner?”
Dr. Ditzler:
“Absolutely! Thankfully, there’s been quite a few over the last year, so where to start… I think that some of the most impactful are those who have stayed with us probably the longest. We had a hound—actually a group of hounds, I think there were seven or eight—that presented to us last summer, one of which was in severe condition. All of them were emaciated, in very poor condition, with very little water or food resources available to them. One of which came in what we call lateral recumbent, so laying on its side, and to not go into too much detail but just to paint a picture: she was alive, but she had maggots inside of her mouth just from her body being so dry. She had a body condition score of a one, and I recall saying to the officer, ‘If there was any number less than one, that’s what I would put for her on her record.’
She had very black poop, she had hard soil all throughout her abdomen—she had been trying to eat rocks. With some diagnostics, we found that she was severely anemic in addition to being emaciated, of course very dehydrated with severe electrolyte disturbances from not being able to get the nutrition that she needed. So we had to work very closely with our criticalist and our critical care team to provide medical support for her, and I think she was with us—what do you think—10, 14 days at least? Had multiple blood transfusions, dewormers, blood work throughout it for some time periods.”
“And one of our employees stepped up to foster this girl when she was ready to go into a home situation, knowing she still needed pretty intense medical care even outside of the hospital. Some friends told me they had a friend of theirs at church who was looking for a dog, and so this dog is now in an extraordinarily loving home with a client that will do anything for her. She sounds like she’s a wild child now—so very different from when she came in barely being able to open her eyes. And honestly, I remember telling the officer that I think she would have been gone within a few hours if she had not brought her to us. So she’s an impactful story.
Another one is a dog named Whiskey, who was a young—I think around one to two-year-old—chocolate Lab that was dragged behind a vehicle intentionally and came in with severe skin that was missing, open wounds, because they had not sought veterinary care for several days. Thankfully, someone reported this. That dog needed surgeries over the course of two weeks, plasma transfusions, of course significant wound care, and we weren’t sure if he was going to make it. Years ago, this would have been an absolute euthanasia case without a doubt. And so with our friends with Chesterfield’s Tommy Fund and some others, we were able to help get this dog the care that it really needed and deserved, and that dog was actually adopted by one of our staff members. It’s hard not to fall in love with these guys when they’re here.
We’ve had some others. We had a puppy that came in with a pyometra, that was emaciated, also anemic. We were able to coordinate between some localities to get some blood for this girl, get the blood transfusion to go to surgery with James River, and she was recently adopted out by a beautiful, wonderful family as well that we still stay in contact with. And so I think that that a little bit leads into some of our other things to discuss, which is how do we deal with these cases and how do we cope mentally with it. Although it’s extraordinarily hard seeing them coming in like this, especially when we lose them, seeing that impact and telling these stories about how they are ending up in these beautiful, wonderful homes and where they came from—that’s how I deal with it, knowing the impact that we’ve made to not only the people who get these animals in their lives but that the dog has a new lease on life. I personally have three dogs now that I’ve gotten through rescue situations, two of which were cruelty/abuse cases, and looking at them every single day gives me the reason to keep going, to drive on.”
Jen Mellace:
“I can’t imagine how hard it is to see these cases come in and to do what you folks do. I think Whiskey and… was the other one Pretty that you were talking about?”
Dr. Ditzler:
“Yeah, no… her name is Pumpkin, I believe.”
Jen Mellace:
“Pumpkin! For those of you who are listening, we have highlighted at least those two pups on our social media pages, and you can go and see pictures of Pretty—now Pumpkin—and Whiskey, these very lucky dogs that have had the opportunity to have a new lease on life. Another big case that went through Partner was Gibbs, who fell in the well. Is that right?”
Dr. Ditzler:
“Yes, Gibbs we saw last June. So I actually got a phone call on my way to work from Goochland County Animal Protection saying that there was a dog that they found stuck in a well, and that Goochland County and Henrico County Fire Department and Rescue teams had already been called out to the scene. They were hoping to have a veterinarian on scene but also knowing that it needed to be triaged. We ended up calling Dr. Lori Elliott, who is also, as we previously said, associated with the shelter, and she was closer to the scene, had a little bit more flexibility with work, so it certainly made sense for her to go out to the scene to triage Gibbs, get him in a stable condition to be able to transfer to Partner.
As I was already on my way, Christy and I worked with our ICU team to set up the ER, get everybody prepared for what we may or may not encounter, and coordinate services from there. Once we got the call that they got him out of the well, they transferred him over through, I believe, Goochland County. It was a very fun ordeal as far as seeing it from the ER side of things, but having the fire department gurney him in and our team receiving… I think that was, being a young hospital, one of our good impactful moments, knowing how much of a team we were not only within our hospital but for our team members themselves to see how we are working with our community to provide this very clear and rapid care to those that need help.
So we got Gibbs in, he was triaged, he had, thankfully, only minor injuries, but he was an old boy, so he was very tired. I know we hospitalized him overnight, and thankfully he recovered very well in hospital over the next 12-24 hours and was able to go home with his family. I know that they were really supported by our staff, and Christy had spoken with the family quite a bit while they were there about the plan moving forward and all of our efforts to help.”
Christy Schwartz:
“I think one of the things Gibbs’ story highlights is the likeness of veterinary medicine to human healthcare, where we are getting calls ahead and we are, at the hospital level, preparing for the triage to come in. It does look a little different—they’re not always arriving by ambulance or whatever—but we are preparing the staff, we are getting information, those calls are coming in, we know what to expect. We are preparing both medically and as a team, and then adjusting so the other pets in the hospital are also taken care of as well during that triage process and the intake.
While a lot of people don’t always understand what happens behind the scenes, those who have personal experience… it’s a great way to understand that these same things are happening to the animals that we receive here in the hospital. We get the calls, we work in collaboration over the phone understanding the breed, the type, the injury that we may be getting, and then we act appropriately in the hospital to receive that type of patient and move forward with care as necessary.”
Jen Mellace:
“Yeah, I remember that story because it was another one that we highlighted on our social media. So those of you listening can go back through our social media and find Gibbs’ story. What a true testament to how Partner works with the community—that everybody came together for this dog and it was a happy ending. So kudos again to you guys. Going back to the point that you were talking about, these cases coming in and dealing with them… how does Partner handle the conversations around animal welfare and how are we supporting our team?”
Christy Schwartz:
“Partner is a great support system for having things for the entire team—so this is the doctors, the front staff, the clinical staff. Resources such as EAP, we do case reviews in-house, we have a lot of community relationships with both animal protection agencies and other resources in the community. We also get additional support from animal welfare advocacy groups. I think one of the other supports that internally, as a very diverse team, is that we all come to these cases with diverse backgrounds, multidisciplinary supports, different experiences. Each of us comes with a way to think outside the box a little bit differently and who we can reach out to, who we know in the community who can help us get through the next steps.
Again, also talking about these cases and openly talking about these cases, making changes for the next case, alerting those people within leadership that ‘Hey, we have this’ so that everybody’s aware and these are not siloed cases that are just taken care of without conversation. Again, I think the other thing that Partner does really well is we support our team in supporting these resources—so our team being able to have their animals participate in blood banks so that we can also give to that resource and then ask for that resource back as we need it for these cases. Those kinds of things are super important that Partner is exceptional at supporting, and we’re able to give back in various ways for each diverse case because none of them are exactly the same and they all need different supports.”
Dr. Ditzler:
“Yeah, just spinning off of that with Christy—I agree with her that talking about it is extraordinarily important, and not just in one-on-one conversations. Partner really supports us having case reviews where we schedule a time and say, ‘This was really challenging, this is really tough. We’re going to meet in the ICU at nine o’clock on Tuesday. Anybody who is dealing with this case, let’s go talk about it.’ My door is always open, Christy’s door is always open, but we both try to communicate with our staff about the successes that we do see. Even when the patients may not make it, we remind them of the impact that we have made by seeing them, examining them, helping animal protection out, because those do trickle and have a bigger effect down the line.
The other side of it, I think, is coming from that maturity side of things with this and knowing that you don’t have to take on all of that emotional burden personally. This is something that we are a small part in the legal process at times, and that makes it a little bit easier—lifting yourself up and saying, ‘My job is to do a really good job at taking care of this pet, being passionate about my job, documenting things,’ and the rest is left to the court system. Sometimes we win, sometimes we don’t, but take that emotional burden off yourself—this is not all your responsibility. We are a team with the local animal protection and rescue groups. We are one aspect of that, but we are a strong group together, and that, I think, is a huge thing to keep reminding our staff: we do make a big impact, but the burden is not solely on us. We have the resources and the backing behind us.
Christy Schwartz:
And I think Partner is also—while April is Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month—overall, Partner is huge on animal welfare regardless of cruelty. Taking care of the patients that are presented at the hospital every time they’re presented, and every patient gets that individualized care, is 12 months out of the year. It’s not just the focus of April and preventing cruelty—it’s every case gets the same amount of attention as the case before it and the cases after it.”
Dr. Ditzler:
“Yeah, I do recall Hanover County calling us last year when they had a house fire with several cats that were involved, and we didn’t ask if they were owned pets, we didn’t ask about where they were financially or otherwise—we just said, ‘Yes, absolutely, no doubt, no questions, bring them to us, we can help, we will help,’ and we did. There have been several other cases… I am a firm, strong believer in Partner’s ways of ‘We Can Help.’ Christy’s come to me and said, ‘Erica, you do your medicine, I will figure out the rest.’ That is, as a veterinarian, a huge burden off of us and our team—just to do what we’re passionate about and what we’re good at, and Christy just takes the lead and goes with it. I love that about Partner. We are so strong in that aspect.
Christy Schwartz:
And I think in Richmond, it’s worth giving a shout out to James River Surgery and CVCA, as they are also very instrumental in us being able to take care of these pets as a whole and being able to assess the pet and take care of it. It’s not just the hospital as a whole that comes together when these patients arrive—we are not in this alone with that. So thank you to James River and CVCA.”
Jen Mellace:
“Yeah, and James River and CVCA being right in our building…”
“Yeah, a great shout out to them and for having everything right there when you guys need them. It’s wonderful, and I think that that’s a really good place to end this—where we’re there for the community. You guys do such an amazing job in helping these animals, and I just want to thank you, Christie, and thank you, Dr. Ditsler, for taking the time to chat with me and to share the stories that you have and the impact that you have on the Richmond and surrounding communities. Thank you very, very much.”
Christy Schwartz:
“Thank you.”
Dr. Ditzler:
“Thank you for highlighting this.”
Narrator:
“Thank you for listening to ‘Did You Know?’ Is there something about Partner that you want to know? Email us at [email protected]. Who knows? We might turn your question into an entire episode! And you can now find us wherever you listen to all of your other favorite podcasts. Subscribe now!”