For the almost 8,000 conventioneers in attendance at the 145th annual American Veterinary Medical Association convention in New Orleans July 19-22, just about everyone heard two magic words-”Thank you.”

City officials, hotel employees, taxi drivers, local veterinarians, waiters, musicians, artists and New Orleans residents from every walk of life were open about thanking AVMA staff and members for bringing its convention to the Big Easy. After all, some neighborhoods are still rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina.

Richard Colar, who works at the Riverside Hilton, was one of the many locals who were eager to say thanks to every veterinarian he met during the convention. “Veterinarians are great people,” he says. “Veterinarians saved my dog.”

When Hurricane Katrina flooded Colar’s neighborhood with 13 feet of water in 2005, he was forced by authorities to flee without his Siberian husky, Princess. Veterinarians later relocated the dog to safety in Delaware, and a few weeks later Princess and Colar were reunited. Colar hopes to move back into his rebuilt home from a FEMA trailer later this year.

“It was so important to me to get my dog back, and I was so thankful,” he says. “I was really happy to see veterinarians come to New Orleans. It really helps. Every convention that comes helps a little bit. I never knew that there were so many animal lovers in the world.”

Some of the veterinarians attending the AVMA convention were part of the efforts in New Orleans following Katrina to help people like Colar. In the aftermath of the hurricane, veterinarians on the AVMA Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams served in New Orleans, treating rescued animals and providing public health assistance. For them, the convention-and the “Voluntourism” program entitled “Our Oath in Action”-meant returning to ground zero.

For two days prior to the convention, approximately 150 AVMA members and their families, along with veterinary technicians, students and industry employees volunteered their time to help rebuild animal shelter facilities affected by Hurricane Katrina, including the Plaquemines Parish Animal Control facility, the St. Charles Parish Animal Shelter, the Jefferson West Parish Animal Shelter and the St. John the Baptist Parish Animal Shelter.

“Our volunteers were extremely dedicated,” says Dr. Bruce Little, vice chair of the American Veterinary Medical Foundation, a veterinarian-directed charity that funds disaster-relief programs across the country. “It was a wonderful program run by the foundation. The improvements made to these facilities were immense, but I still believe that the people that got the most of out it were the volunteers themselves. They really enjoyed contributing their time and the efforts to help rebuild New Orleans.”

With the support of sponsors like Bayer Animal Health, which funded transportation, food, caps and t-shirts and supplies for the volunteers; Hills Pet Nutrition, which provided cooling shelters; and Sherwin Williams, which provided paint and paining supplies, volunteers cleaned, insulated, patched shelter walls, painted, rebuilt cages, and even helped prepare the animals for adoption. “We were able to complete more work than we expected, and the facilities looked so much better when we were finished,” Dr. Little explains.

Conventioneers helped New Orleans in other significant ways as well, pouring $9.3 million into the struggling economy of the city, according to the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau (NOMCVB).

“The American Veterinary Medical Association generated over $9 million in economic impact by bringing their annual convention to New Orleans in the off-peak summer months, which not only fueled our city’s most important economic engine-tourism-but also supported our chefs, street performers, musicians, artists, etc. that make New Orleans the unique destination that it is,” says Stephen Perry, NOMCVB president and CEO. “Above and beyond, AVMA donated their time to assist in building new homes for our animal community. We can’t wait to welcome them back!”

Dr. James Creed, chair of the Convention Management and Program Committee, said that the city of New Orleans didn’t disappoint. The host city and convention programs were praised by conventioneers.

“People loved the Cajun food in wonderful restaurants, and they had to be surprised at seeing no effects from Katrina in the downtown area,” Dr. Creed says. “Many unsolicited comments related how impressed attendees were with quality of speakers, breadth and relevance of topics and excellence of educational opportunities.”

The AVMA and its more than 76,000 member veterinarians are engaged in a wide variety of activities dedicated to advancing the science and art of animal, human and public health. Visit the AVMA Web site at avma for more information.

American Veterinary Medical Association