Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Springfield’s Animal Protective League is still operating almost like normal, despite the June tornado that all but completely destroyed their Taintor Road headquarters.

Deana Corbin, the Executive Director, tells the WTAX Morning Newswatch they have activities and adoption events all over the city, even without a permanent home at the moment.

“We’re hoping to take down our buildings that (will be) demolished, now that the (Illinois State Fair) is over, and kind of looking at what the next step may be,” said Corbin.  “Hopefully, we’re going to be able to bring in some portable building to our site and work out of there.  We’ve got a couple options on the table.  Trying to figure out what’s going to work best for us.”

Part of the APL property was used as state fair parking for fundraising purposes, and Corbin says that was a huge success.

She says insurance has slowed things down, but she hopes demolition of the old building will happen soon.

Meanwhile, the APL has also been able to help other animal shelters.  Through a program led by the Best Friends Animal Society, several APL staff were able to travel to Georgia recently, to help a shelter there, Corbin said.

“There was a shelter in Georgia that lost a lot of staff for whatever reason, and were really struggling to be able to care for all the animals they have,” said Corbin.  “Since we’re kind of in the middle of a tornado situation, and trying to keep our staff busy, they asked if we would like to help.  We were super excited, and sent three people down there at different times, to kind of help their staff and kind of take care of the animals, clean cages.”

Corbin says in addition, it allowed both agencies to get together and compare notes on how both can run their operations better.

As for the APL, Corbin says monetary donations continue to be the best way the shelter can be helped.  Click here to find out more.