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4-H donation goes to the dogs
Students give to Animal Control
4-H donation
A group of five Warren County homeschool 4-H’ers made their project a benefit for Warren County Animal Control and Adoption Center. Pictured, from left, are Lakelyn Collins, Nevaeh Parker, Obie Hayes, Animal Control employee Ashley Bouldin, Theo Burks, Michael Jones and Animal Control director Sherri Bradley.

A group of local homeschool 4-H’ers took their first leap into the world of community service recently with a donation to Warren County Animal Control and Adoption Center. 

“They all loved this project, especially since it included animals,” said Susan Burks, of Lakelyn Collins, Nevaeh Parker, Obie Hayes, Theo Burks and Michael Jones. “Several of the members made enrichment toys from a YouTube video for the animals. The toys had treats in them. The kids put their own twist on it by recycling old blankets and clothes to make the dog and cat toys. Michael made dog beds. He is familiar with a sewing machine and used items he had around the house to make the beds.”

Head, heart, hands and health are the four H’s in the youth-focused organization aimed at growing hardworking, responsible and confident children through hands-on projects.

“One of the H’s in 4-H is hands to larger service,” said Burks. “By assessing the needs of the community, creating a project and presenting it to the members, coming together and organizing a project as a team, and seeing and feeling it fulfilled encourages our youth to be servant leaders in their communities when they grow up.”

Parker, elected as service project chair, posed the idea of benefiting Animal Control and it was unanimously accepted by the group. 

“I really love animals so being able to help them was such an amazing experience,” said Parker. “I really feel like our 4-H club came together and made a big difference for the animals of Warren County.” 

Members used a combination of their own money and public donations to obtain the purchased items. 

“They used Facebook, asked their church members and got personal donations to purchase the pine pellets,” said Burks. “We utilized TSC’s online pickup option, where individuals from out of town purchased items and selected one of our 4-H members as the pickup person and delivered it to the shelter. I’d say the 4-H’ers used a combination of their own money and donations.”

Animal Control director Sherri Bradley thanked the group and said the enrichment toys would help entertain the confined animals and the dog beds would be a welcome addition as well.