Homework helps animals
Eight dogs and one cat found a new home Saturday as students helped the Cache Humane Society spread awareness about homeless pets.
Management and Human Resource 3110 students helped the Cache Humane Society by giving out fliers, raffle tickets and prizes while hosting and participating in an adopt-a-pet day at Logan’s Petsmart. The group named themselves USU Campus 2 Community.
Jeneca Cajal Cox, a junior majoring in management and human resource; said their professor divided the class into 20 groups. Her group consisted of 14 students.
The professor wanted the class to find an activity in which they could directly help the community in a positive way, Cox said.
“We chose the Humane Society because the whole group loves animals and we thought it would be a good thing to do,” she said.
Casey Bullock, a senior majoring in leadership management, said the project was very effective.
“The whole thing in general felt good,” he said. “It is great to touch the community from campus.”
The group learned from the Humane Society that it’s more about finding a good home than just any home, Bullock said.
“I would love to see [projects] happen more often in ways these groups have,” he said.
Bullock said because he has a dog at home, he enjoyed the time he worked with animals and knew it was a good idea to choose the Humane Society.
Brian Burton, a senior majoring in business information systems, said it was a great way to be educated – different than writing a paper.
“It’s different than your average-day project,” he said. “It makes you feel active doing something rather than writing a paper. It makes us a part in something and takes a lot of coordination.”
Both Burton and Bullock said each person in the group added their personalities into different aspects of the project and equally played their role.
Norma Barringer, head of the foster program for the Cache Humane Society, said the students helped them break records.
“We never [place] this many dogs in one day,” she said. “The students did an awesome job helping us.”
Barringer said the group did the project from their own ideas and advertising. The students even contacted the local pet store.
The Humane Society needs the money to finish their home for the pets, she said. Her husband, Don, is a volunteer to be the general contractor of the project.
She said most people think because it’s being built, the shelter is finished. It has a lot of work before they can say it’s complete and they need the money to do just that, she said.
“Animals now stay in private homes,” she said. “We have foster volunteers keep them; no animal is put to sleep.”
Barringer said the students are helping because “every dollar counts.” Even though an adoption is $70, that money is used for the veterinarian fees, she said. They depend on volunteers’ help and donations.
Cox said the project was advertised on three radio stations and a local TV station. When the activity started, they passed out balloons with fliers to invite the community to the
activity.
The raffle started at 12 p.m. and ended at 4 p.m. She said prizes were donated from Beaver Mountain, Café Sabor, Iron Gate Grill, Bradley Patch DDS and others so the students could help finish the shelter.
At the end of the activity they awarded the Cache Humane Society with a $1,002.79 check. The check again was awarded later that night at a banquet the Humane Society had, Cox said.
“I can’t imagine it going better,” she said. “It would have been nice to earn more money, but we accomplished more than planned.”
Cox said the advertising helped the fund raiser and placing the eight dogs. She said the community is great and she was thankful for their support and everyone that helped with the project.
Their goals were to host an adoption day, hold a raffle and pass out fliers to spread awareness to the community, she said. They were all satisfied with their efforts and outcome.
Cox said even though it is hard to volunteer without a shelter, she plans on helping as much as possible. She was grateful for the opportunity to get her active in helping animals, she said.
-srkrebs@cc.usu.edu