MIDDLEBURG – Sherry Mansfield is leaving her role as Safe Animal Shelter executive director after six years of triumphs and challenges. Mansfield, who attended Orange Park High, started as a volunteer in early 2015 and became executive director of the shelter about five months later.

“The saying [with board members] was, I’ll stay on as director until you find somebody,” Mansfield said.

Mansfield moved back to Clay County in 2014. She has lived in the U.S. Virgin Islands and England, teaching elementary school in both countries. Starting as a volunteer at Safe, she was excited by the challenge of rising through the organization.

“It was not really planned. I went from volunteer to board member to executive director in a matter of months,” Mansfield said. “It’s been my life for the last six years. It’s been a roller coaster.”

Mansfield has overseen the shelter through the COVID-19 pandemic and two hurricanes. Even through difficult emotional times, Mansfield said she’s loved every minute of it with staff she called amazing.

Flooding from Hurricane Irma devastated Safe Animal Shelter. Staff was frantically seeking to house animals and find accommodations. “[Hurricane Irma] totally wiped us out,” Mansfield said. “People were so supportive, I’ve never stopped saying that, if not for the community we wouldn’t be there.”

Mansfield said she’s pushed the shelter as far as she could after six years. She felt new leadership, from new executive director Lynne Dougherty, would boost fundraising and expansion efforts.

“I just felt it was time,” she added.

The shelter’s first mission is to keep animals from being euthanized, she said. However, the shelter has grown considerably and takes in stray or neglected animals or animals whose owners move or pass away. Safe Animal Shelter deals with kitten season three times a year and Mansfield said medical expenses are a drain on finances.

“When people are leaving kittens at the door, it’s hard to say no,” Mansfield said. “It’s not just neglect. You can ask yourself how someone can leave their pets when they move away, but it does happen.”

Chris Sanders began volunteering at the shelter in 2013 and joined the organization’s board in 2017. She said Mansfield’s warmth and compassion made the shelter feel like a family.

“Sherry is high energy and fun to work with,” Sanders said. “She’s dedicated to the mission of the shelter and wants us to make sure we answer the call of our mission.”

Sanders credited Mansfield with leading the shelter through Irma and the COVID-19 pandemic. Both the hurricane and the pandemic closed the shelter, but adoptions have increased each year under Mansfield’s leadership, Sanders said.

“It was amazing what she did to lead us through those disasters,” Sanders said.

Shelley Finn, the shelter’s administrative assistant since 2017, said Mansfield helped create the dog and cat foster programs, which significantly increased adoptions. Finn called Mansfield enthusiastic and said she was transparent about the shelter’s needs in the aftermath of Irma.

“After Irma, everything could have fallen apart,” Finn said. “That’s when she put Safe on the map. The entire community pitched in.”

Tuesday, Oct. 26, is Mansfield’s last day as executive director, but she will assist in other ways. She wants to be a part of constructing a new building for cats that the shelter started raising money for a few years ago. “I hope to stay in some capacity,” Mansfield said. “I want to continue helping.”

The shelter accepts donations in several forms whether it’s food, cat litter or money. More information is available at safeanimalshelter.com or by calling 375-9122. Mansfield said the shelter needs help now more than ever.

“I would ask people to never give up on the shelter,” she said.