Brieanne Dunlap knows that there is need in the world – and she wants to eradicate it one blanket at a time. The fifth-grader at Lincoln Elementary School in Caldwell, Idaho is working alongside her friends to make warm, fuzzy blankets by hand for Canyon County Animal Shelter animals.
As reported by news station KTVB, the children are part of the 21st Century Program, one of the elementary school’s after-hours offerings. The program is funded through federal Title IV-B, with the goals of reducing achievement gaps and offering recreation and physical as well as social and cultural activity for student participants.
One major component of the program is a service-learning project. Past projects have included work with the local food bank, baking cookies for local military personnel, planting a garden for a retirement community and offering services and gifts to needy families during the holidays.
Throughout the 2009-2010 school year, the program’s academic activities included reading and math instruction, connecting with Turkish pen pals, physical fitness, painting, sculpting, drawing and tracing, and lessons on character development.
This particular service project is aimed at keeping shelter pets warm in an environment that often does not hold a lot of coziness. “Today we’re helping animals get blankets at the animal shelter because they don’t have many,” Dunlap told KTVB, adding that she relies on her own blanket for comfort and warmth
The blankets are meant for dogs as well as cats. The funding for the project was procured by the children themselves, earned by decorating a Christmas tree for the local Zions Bank. In return, the kids earned $35, which was immediately invested into getting additional funds to make the blankets.
“So we started with $35,” 21st Century Program teacher Janiece Rowan told KTVB, “and we used that money to do a candy-cane sale at Christmas time.”
They proceeded to turn their seed money into $268. That money was used to buy fabric to hand-craft the blankets. In addition, the school is currently running a fundraising drive to collect funds for the local shelter – and it is also collecting food for dogs and cats who are there.
In addition, the children sold soda on Valentine’s Day and plan to use the funds from that drive to meet more of the shelter’s needs. The animals are paramount in the childrens’ minds – and the kids have decided to take the animals’ comfort into their small, capable hands.
“Animals are pretty much like humans – they have needs too,” Dunlap told the station. “You know how dogs are … man’s best friend? A lot of them aren’t treated like that, so we thought we should help them get that kind of treatment.”
Rowan added that the project “really brought home to the kids” a visceral understanding of helping out in their community.
Lincoln Elementary School had 410 students during the 2009-2010 school year and serves students from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade. To find out more information on how to donate to the shelter through the school, call (208) 455-3321 or visit the school online.
Comments