Alyssa Hamaya

rescuing the abandoned

Miami Palmetto Senior High senior Alyssa Hamaya, alongside her mother Jessica Stephens and her friend Mollie Cybulski, co-founded Xtreme Rescue, Inc., a non-profit, foster-based dog rescue, in 2012. The rescue prioritizes issues of overpopulated shelters and animal abandonment in South Florida.

Hamaya has always loved animals — most likely because her mother, an avid animal-lover herself, raised her daughter surrounded by foster dogs.

“I’ve always had animals. I basically can’t live without them, and [Alyssa] grew up the same,” Stephens said. “Everyday, we’d take our foster dogs to [Perrine Wayside Dog Park] and Alyssa would run with them, teach them to swim and play hide-and-seek with the pups.”

Perhaps it comes as no surprise that from an early age Hamaya demonstrated an interest in accompanying her mother on transports. This entails driving rescued animals to available foster homes, rescues and shelters around South Florida.

“We ended up just finding dogs, and then we met [Mollie] and we all created [Xtreme Rescue, Inc.] together,” Hamaya said. “It was just the three of us that started it off. We filed all the paperwork that we needed to with the state and then we just started taking dogs in.”

Running a rescue — especially theirs, which prioritizes dogs that require hospice care, are old or are injured versus young, healthy dogs — takes considerable dedication and time. With a laundry list of logistical duties, the three of them work hard to ensure every animal is loved and well-cared for.

“We run background, property and home checks on adopters prior to approval. We transport dogs to other rescues when our space is full, or to vet offices to provide medical attention,” Stephens said. “We network adoptable dogs and temporarily hold animals until their transport in secure for other rescues to receive them. They are dependent on us and we need to fulfill our promises of keeping them as family, not as disposable, material objects.”

Despite starting the rescue seven years ago, Hamaya has not lost her passion for helping animals in need. In fact, after entering high school — stressful enough in its own right — Hamaya took on more duties and worked on rescuing and coordinating all the time, forcing her to balance both school and rescue responsibilities.

“When I first started high school, I did it non-stop, from the time I woke up to the time I got on the bus to the time I got home or before I went to sleep,” Hamaya said. “I did it during school, as well… if [fosters] needed anything, they had my number. I would step out and call. My teachers didn’t really know...I mainly told them my mom was on the phone, and it was an emergency.”

To keep the rescue running smoothly, Hamaya must wear many hats, helping out with social media and coordinating transports, a complicated process requiring multiple steps.

“I help out with social media — the Facebook page, the Instagram page and whatever websites we have the pets on,” Hamaya said. “I also coordinate transports. I make run sheets for pets to go from point A to point B, and there are a few times we’ve had to go out and find dogs that people called us about that needed help.”

Through Xtreme Rescue, Hamaya has built a community of shelters, adopters, fosters, vets, along with other rescues across South Florida. “I basically searched out other rescues, became friends with them and over time we began helping each other out in any way we could,” Hamaya said. Others in her life recognize and appreciate the impact she is making.

“I’m very proud of her. She has done so much for the animals, stepping up when no one else would help place them,” Stephens said. “[Running a rescue] is a full-time commitment. Luckily for me, Alyssa has always been interested in helping out and doing more than I ever asked for.” Hamaya’s close friend and fellow Palmetto senior Daniela Madrid notes her work reflects not only her passion, but her character as well. “She has a huge heart, not only for people but for animals,” Madrid said.“More likely than not she will do anything...to get someone or something in a better situation.”

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Katriona Page Copy Editor k.page.thepanther@gmail.com