Brownie troop makes Humane Society happier
April 27, 2012 3:18PM
Brownie Troop service unit 19 of Shorewood displays the supplies they purchased with cookie money for the Will County Humane Society in Shorewood. | Kris Stadalsky ~ For Sun-Times Media
Updated: June 1, 2012 8:03AM
Fifteen young girls — second-grade students from a Brownie Troop at Holy Family School in Shorewood — made a big impact on the dogs and cats staying at the Will County Humane Society on Seil Road in Shorewood.
The county’s oldest no-kill shelter houses 100 animals on a typical day. One day in early April, 75 cats alone were roaming the rooms of the cat compound.
The girls of Brownie Troop service unit 19 out of Shorewood decided to donate a portion of the money they earned selling Girl Scout cookies to purchase items for the Humane Society.
A wish list was supplied by the Humane Society, said shelter manager Larry Ringbauer. The list can also be found on its website, willcountyhumane.com.
“We really appreciate (the donation). We need everything,” said Ringbauer. “ It’s good to see the schools getting involved.”
Each girl was given $25, plus a bunch of coupons, and let loose in PetCo to select things the animals need.
They bought food, blankets, toys, cat litter, treats, brushes, catnip, bottles, brushes, formula and more, the girls said. Then they bagged it all up and took it to the shelter to present to the employees and volunteers.
The girls were ecstatic about all the things they were able to buy with their money and coupons. They were able to purchase $420 worth of products.
Dressed in their Brownie uniforms, they gathered in a garage at the shelter with their bags upon bags of supplies.
They wanted to do the project for many reasons, they said.
They love animals, said one Brownie member. “We see they are sad and need food and they need love,” she said.
“If we give extra to the animals, we thought we would save a lot of animals,” said another.
“We are making a change for them not to be so hungry,” one added.
And one of my favorite answers, “We didn’t want to have a (Brownie) troop that didn’t do much. We want to change the world.”
The second-grade students are already making an impact on the world around them. And they do many more things in the community, said co-leader Monique Freeman.
Along with the girls in the grades 3-6 Troop out of Holy Family, they’ve held a book drive, a glove and mitten drive and a food pantry drive, and visited an assisted living home to sing carols and hand out Christmas cards. They also collected pennies, which helped to purchase a tree to plant in celebration of Girl Scouting’s 100-year anniversary on March 12 of this year.
The Girl Scouts’ mission is to build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. It’s evident from their many projects, and the girls’ excitement and commitment to them, that Scouting is doing its job.
After presenting a shelter worker with their supplies, the girls got to go inside and visit the cats.
Each cat had its own cage to escape to when it wanted to be alone, and they figured out how to open their own doors to get in and out. Several large scratching posts with cubby holes for hiding held multiple cats. Others cuddled in beds or vied for the attention of the girls.
The cats even have a solarium room where the sun shines in and they can perch on window sills and posts to look outside. The screens were even open for them on that warm afternoon.
But even though the cats have a great temporary place to live, the girls immediately saw that the animals need more personal love and attention. Which is why the shelter is in need of loving, adoptive homes.
In the meantime, the cats and dogs at the Will County Humane Society are a bit happier and feeling a bit more loved because of the big hearts of these girls.
Reach Kris Stadalsky at
writestuff56@comcast.net.
