Sammy's Animal Service Club

Sammy spent a couple months volunteering her time at the Animal Shelter in town as part of the Animal Service Club. This was a program through Bloomington Parks and Recreation that provided younger children the opportunity to learn about, play with, and provide assistance to the animals at the shelter. They helped socialize young puppies by playing with them. They baked homemade dog treats for them. They created cute name tags for their kennels. And they watched some of the animals be adopted. (This was the hardest part for Sammy because she didn't want to see her favorite animals leave.)

After the program came to an end, Sammy decided that she wanted to start her own Animal Service Club at school. It was quite a process, but she was enthusiastic the entire time and really followed through on her ideas.

Sammy first went to the animal shelter and asked what type of items they were in need of. They told her they needed blankets and towels, wet and dry dog food, cat food, and dog toys. Next, she typed a letter to the principal, Mrs. Smith, asking permission to collect donations at school. After getting permission, she and I created a sign-up sheet for kids in the class who were interested in assisting with the service project. The group of students then made lots of signs to hang up around the school and decorated a huge box to collect donations in. Sammy then asked Mrs. Smith to make an announcement after the pledge one morning so that everyone at school would know to bring things in to donate to the shelter. They ended up collecting quite a bit of stuff. It filled the back of our Trailblazer and took many trips to carry it all into the shelter. They were so appreciative when we arrived. What a great project for Sammy to be in charge of!