By Sammie Stewart, Contributing Writer
Every spring, the students in Communications 481 volunteer for a nonprofit for their capstone project. This semester, the students in this class decided to work for the Jefferson County Humane Society. As a part of the project, the class will be setting up donation boxes around campus. WLU students and professors can donate anything from food for the animals to printer paper and colored construction paper.
The students are very excited to help the Jefferson County Humane Society out. Lindsay Dowdle, one of the members of the group, is hoping to help out the shelter as much as she can. “I’m really enjoying working with the shelter so far,” she said. “Moving forward, I hope we can help them in any way we possibly can and get their name out there.”
Not only are the students in the capstone excited, but so are the people working at the animal shelter. Brandi Damewood, the shelter’s marketing director, is especially excited. “I am most excited that I have help with PR, because I am so busy developing our newest endeavor of the school field trips,” she stated. “We are a newer organization, so we could use all the help we could get.” She also said that she is very excited to be getting donations, since they are in dire need of many things.
Damewood was also very persistent on mentioning that they need more volunteers. “People can sign up for our volunteer orientation class through our Facebook page,” she said. “We offer one class each month and class size is limited due to the size of our community room. After reading the handbook, signing agreement, and taking the class, volunteers can come anytime, as long as staff is there.” She mentioned that children under the age of 14 can volunteer, as well. However, they need to be with a guardian and cannot handle the dogs. Once the child is 16, they will no longer need a guardian.
As far as the fundraiser goes, all donations will start to be collected soon, and the donation boxes will be taken down in April. This gives anyone that wants to help out plenty of time to do so. Both the Jefferson County Humane Society and the capstone students verge professors and students to donate whatever they can. The capstone group is also doing more events in the future and will be keeping WGLZ, WL14, Hilltopper Headlines, and, of course, The Trumpet up to date on their endeavors.
Photo Credit: Sammie Stewart
