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Live Oak church youth group contributes to animal shelter
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| Masey Bowers, 7, and her brother Grant, 3, dry off a female Labrador retriever /bassett hound mix named Annabell. They plan to adopt the canine from the Lake City/Columbia County Animal Shelter. JASON MATTHEW WALKER/Lake City Reporter |
First United Methodist Church SPY program brought gifts to animals.
By TONY BRITT
tbritt@lakecityreporter.com
If animals could smile, they’d look like the animals did Wednesday afternoon at the Lake City/Columbia County Animal Shelter. The animals’ smiles, too, would match the smiles of children in a local church group who were spending time with them.
Puppies getting walked; cats getting hugs and dogs licking kids on the face and following them around like best friends were common scenes at the shelter when children from the First United Methodist Church of Live Oak’s SPY (Special Projects Youth) program visited the shelter.
The group’s special project has turned into a bountiful gift for the Lake City/Columbia County Animal Shelter.
Sixteen children from the church brought pet food, supplies, pet adoption kits and their free time and energy to play with and care for the shelter’s animals.
The children bathed, dried, walked and pet the animals during their afternoon visit.
“They basically enjoyed playing with the animals and getting to hold them,” said Pam Hancock, a volunteer with the First United Methodist Church of Live Oak’s children group. “Our fall project is an animal shelter and the children crafted and we sold Christmas crafts to raise money.
“They’re a hardworking group of kids,” Hancock said. “We started in April 2007 with just a group of children from the youth group to give them something for the kindergarten through fifth-grade children. We wanted something for the children to do and we just centered it around projects, which makes it fun and lets them give back to the community and they have a blast doing it.”
Lake City Animal Shelter director Terry Marques said he was told the children worked hard building and selling arts and crafts to raise money to buy items that were donated to the shelter.
He said their visit served multiple purposes.
“We have a captive audience with the children,” Marques said. “We seize the opportunity to educate them on responsible pet ownership and on the flip-side, the animals get out of their cages, get to spend quality time with the children and it releases some of their pent up energy for living in a cage and the kids go home and deliver the responsible pet owner message to their parents.”
The animal shelter is a non-profit agency and Marques said the slow economy has resulted in budget cuts at the agency. He said the contribution from the youth group is beneficial.
“Every little bit counts and we have a very limited budget moving into the times we have now where everybody sees cuts in their budget, as did we,” he said. “This donation is just a really wonderful thing for us. I’m happy they choose us.”
Puppies getting walked; cats getting hugs and dogs licking kids on the face and following them around like best friends were common scenes at the shelter when children from the First United Methodist Church of Live Oak’s SPY (Special Projects Youth) program visited the shelter.
The group’s special project has turned into a bountiful gift for the Lake City/Columbia County Animal Shelter.
Sixteen children from the church brought pet food, supplies, pet adoption kits and their free time and energy to play with and care for the shelter’s animals.
The children bathed, dried, walked and pet the animals during their afternoon visit.
“They basically enjoyed playing with the animals and getting to hold them,” said Pam Hancock, a volunteer with the First United Methodist Church of Live Oak’s children group. “Our fall project is an animal shelter and the children crafted and we sold Christmas crafts to raise money.
“They’re a hardworking group of kids,” Hancock said. “We started in April 2007 with just a group of children from the youth group to give them something for the kindergarten through fifth-grade children. We wanted something for the children to do and we just centered it around projects, which makes it fun and lets them give back to the community and they have a blast doing it.”
Lake City Animal Shelter director Terry Marques said he was told the children worked hard building and selling arts and crafts to raise money to buy items that were donated to the shelter.
He said their visit served multiple purposes.
“We have a captive audience with the children,” Marques said. “We seize the opportunity to educate them on responsible pet ownership and on the flip-side, the animals get out of their cages, get to spend quality time with the children and it releases some of their pent up energy for living in a cage and the kids go home and deliver the responsible pet owner message to their parents.”
The animal shelter is a non-profit agency and Marques said the slow economy has resulted in budget cuts at the agency. He said the contribution from the youth group is beneficial.
“Every little bit counts and we have a very limited budget moving into the times we have now where everybody sees cuts in their budget, as did we,” he said. “This donation is just a really wonderful thing for us. I’m happy they choose us.”
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Squeaky wrote on Dec 4, 2008 5:09 PM:
Thanks to the First United Methodist Church for making the effort to educate and help the future by letting the children see first hand what it takes.
Start Posting Those Pictures Reporter, and Help The Homeless Animals!
One more thing, IF you have a dog chained or penned up outside - STOP IT! A dog is NOT a lawn ornament, they are pack animals, who want (need) to be part of the family! By keeping your dog confined outside - in all types of weather, is cruel, and repulsive! What is the purpose of having the dog IF not to enjoy it being part of your family? IF that's not possible, please have a heart and allow someone else the opportunity to give the dog a proper home. Otherwise you are approving of the endless, hopeless suffering of your dog. SHAME ON YOU! "