It seems Harwin elementary school has gone to the dogs.
And all those canines, cats, rabbits, and an assortment of other animal species stand to benefit from an SPCA pet toy and food drive spearheaded by a group of Harwin students.
Their project involves the CIA (Caring In Action), a School District 57 extracurricular program that encourages students to get involved in volunteering by putting ideas to work to benefit the community.
In less than three weeks, heading into spring break, the students had collected four large boxes of squeaky/chewy toys and stuffed animals, kitty litter, leashes, collars, blankets, several cat beds, and a cat scratching post.
There was some trepidation in Grade 6 student Gemma Marchand when Harwin teacher Marie Therrien took her out of class to tell her she'd been selected as one of the leaders of the pet project. At first, Marchand thought she was in trouble. But Marchand has three dogs, three cats and a rabbit as household pets, and once it was revealed the SPCA would be the beneficiaries, she was hooked on the project.
"I like the idea of helping animals," said Gemma. "We have a lot of stuff and it felt really cool - we're excited to do it.
"I think it's going to help get more students involved in volunteer stuff."
Therrien suggested the idea of gathering goods for the SPCA and the 21 kids, students in Grades 4 to 7, did the rest. They have the added incentive of knowing they will be earning extra marks for getting involved as volunteers in the project.
"We're using this as an enrichment program to connect students to the community and get them to do real caring types of things in the community," said Therrien.
"The students have to be self-motivated and good learners. We only see them three days a week for a half-hour so they've had to do this mostly on their own time."
Students made flyers that some of them stuffed into the newspapers they deliver on routes to inform customers when they would be coming to collect donations.
"Their enthusiasm for this is unbelievable," said Therrien. "They will be marked for this but that's not what's driving them. It was a success because we have so many caring students in the building."
The Harwin students are already thinking about their next projects.
"We'd like to get people to donate money to the cancer centre and we want to to do the [Canadian Cancer Society] Run for the Cure," said Marchand.
The goods will be delivered to the SPCA animal shelter on Landsdowne Road on Monday, March 26 at 1:15 p.m. Usually the shelter is closed to the public on Mondays, but staff will be there that day to greet the students.
