Level Three. Helping.

Level Three. Helping.

By Michelle Lloyd.

At school RV had been engrossed in a new idea that had been introduced to them.  Volunteers were people who could do something for someone else and often this would be in any spare time that they had. Some people donated their time because they knew they could be of assistance to someone else.

RV, listened and liked what he heard. He was even more glad to hear of what their assignment, associated with helping out would be, because he knew that there was someone for whom he would love to volunteer.

New One was a passionate pal of RV. Lana was New One’s pet pooch, he loved her and she loved him. In fairness though Lana had not always had such an easy life and before she had come to live with New One and his family, she had been involved in life without much love at all.

New One knew that because of how Lana had ended up with them, she had been given a different life and he also had told RV that there were many other dogs like her who did not have that good a start at being able to live in a love-filled home. When his own parents were asking to see if anyone had information about Lana before they had taken her in, they had approached many dog shelters in their area and they had witnessed how many animals needed helping out.

Dog shelters and trusts were places that had been set up to look after those animals who did not have a home. Many dogs and other animals could be found taking up residence there, and this was because they were abandoned, neglected or simply handed over for want of a better life.

When RV heard about his latest school assignment the first thought that came to him was about the Dog Shelter where New One had helped out before. Last time New One’s teacher had gotten in touch with the dog’s rehoming organisation for him and asked about what would be the best way of raising awareness and doing something to volunteer. Quickly it had been decided that raising awareness to inform people about the work that went on at the shelter would be a great help and that this was a volunteer project that far from New One doing on his own, would ideally take each and everyone in his class.

It had been a collective success and as an event had meant that helping out involved many collated, small but conscious efforts. RV floated the idea of having another attempt at this kind of class based volunteering for an animal charity and it was met with a lot of excited approval.

It was decided that the school would have another fund raising event in honour of the trust for dogs. The class split up into designated groups and some worked on media promotion on how the information was put out about the school’s involvement and animal awareness event. Vlogs and blogs were set up, a podcast rapidly put together and even a set of media focused videos made about what the dog’s shelter did from their own class’s point of view.

Hits for their website updates turned into listeners from the community tuning into their media motivated and inspired announcements. Some of the class baked either dog-friendly biscuits or animal shaped treats and brought them to the designated stall and on the actual day everyone took part in either selling stalls, running races, face painting or putting on a public presentation about what being a helper for that animal’s trust actually meant.

Once again it was heartening to see the many who turned up to support the trust. There were siblings, family members, community locals and all those who had dogs from the shelter, those who wanted to hear about it and even people who gave a speech about what fostering or adopting a dog could do.

What really made it a special day though was seeing some of the specifically invited dogs who had found a forever home because of their new owners. Lana of course loved the whole day and New One yet again got lots of licks of appreciation.  The volunteer for an animal’s trust event raised money, awareness and the project was a real success in terms of insight and compassion.