SAVE's New Director Looks To Promote the No-Kill Shelter

Candace Braun

When Frederic J. Ball, Jr., first applied for a position with SAVE, he expected to be the organization's new director of development.

However, after Sara Nicolls announced that she was resigning as the executive director of Princeton's no-kill animal shelter a few months ago, Mr. Ball's long-time passion for animals compelled him to interview for the position.

"To me, SAVE had been a well kept secret," said Mr. Ball, 58, who lives in Lawrenceville with his wife and two children.

SAVE, or the Small Animal Veterinary Endowment, was founded in 1941, and is one of seven no-kill shelters in New Jersey.

Any non-profit organization has to strike a cord with its community, said Mr. Ball. As SAVE's new executive director, that's exactly what he's been busy trying to accomplish.

Since taking his position at the end of June, he has been trying to get in touch with communities within a 25-mile radius of SAVE to make them aware of what SAVE does and why it needs financial support. Another of his missions is to make sure SAVE is the organization residents contact for help when they see an abused animal.

The new director also wants SAVE to be the place that families and individuals go to when they would like a pet: "We want to place our animals with loving families....There are a lot of people for whom a companion animal could fill a void."

Mr. Ball set a good example by taking one of the dogs home, an abused mixed breed named Mandy, but his daughter was allergic to Mandy's long fur and he had to find her another home. Mr. Ball said he is hoping to adopt another dog from the shelter that would be a better fit for his family and a playmate for Sheba, their Labrador retriever.

Originally from Washington D.C., Mr. Ball first came to the Princeton area to attend the Lawrenceville School. Pleased with his education there, he encouraged his brother Brian to attend, and both have since enrolled their children at the school.

Mr. Ball got his bachelor's degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he majored in political science and minored in education. Upon graduation, he taught at a private school for two years in Washington D.C., before entering the field of commercial real estate, an occupation he followed for 23 years, working in D.C., Virginia, and North Carolina.

Over the years he has been involved in many different areas that provided valuable experience for the job at SAVE, including proactive administration, motivational leadership, extensive work on strategic operating plans and budgets, public relations, as well as special events and fundraising campaigns, one of them for his alma mater.

After being contacted by Lawrenceville to help with the school's capital campaign, he came to the area in 1994 to work for five years, before returning to D.C., where his family was still residing.

But now the family is finally all here: his wife, Mary, a decorative painter; his son, Freddie, who will be attending Rhodes College in Tennessee in the fall; and his daughter, Ryan, who is a junior at the Lawrenceville School.

Mr. Ball's current top priority at SAVE is to supervise its $10 million campaign to build a proposed 33,000-square-foot shelter. Still in its very early stages, the campaign has raised approximately $1.5 million toward the $6 million needed before construction can begin.

Another of his priorities has been to handle neighborhood complaints about the barking of SAVE's dogs. Although a suit has been filed against the shelter, Mr. Ball has asked the neighbors to contact him personally so that they can find a solution together outside of the courtroom.

"People need to understand that when the dogs are only outside twice a day, they get excited," he said, adding that SAVE is taking steps to move forward with the facility's expansion in ways that he hopes will resolve the problem.

For more information on how to support SAVE, or to find out how to adopt an animal, call (609) 921-6122, or visit www.save-animals.org.