April Blog Post

Blake Andrews
WOW, it's already the month of April! This school year has gone by very fast. I just want to take a moment to reflect on our project with CARE and feel good about all that we have accomplished. We still have a long way to go for April, but we have a plan in place. For the month of April we are finally hosting out fundraiser event for CARE! It is called "Dogs on Campus". At this event we will be providing students and staff the opportunity to play with hogs from CARE. We will be accepting cash and wish-list items for CARE. We have put out flyers as a group, had the Dean of Students send out a mass email to all students, and provided a powerpoint slide for the commons. We have advertised this event heavily. It should be a great success! After we do this event, all we will have left for Summit is out final presentation. I can't wait to tell people about our experience with CARE. It has been amazing!

Mitch Daniel
This year has gone by so quickly, never a dull moment in 629. By far my favorite year in college so far. A big part of that is due to my hilarious roomies and great housemates. Personally the greatest accomplishment might be the fact that we have "gotten along" so well for so long. I am so proud to have lived in the 629 aka home. My housemates have dominated the RLA competitions. Best Door Decoration, best funny video, swept the Cribs competition, and made up two of the four survivors after the zombie apocalypse. We are sorry that we will have to break up our dream team with the girls upstairs and take our talents to College Park next year, but we are ready to make an impact on that too. In the community we have made many more meaningful impacts. One of our big contributions to Castaway Animals Rescue Effort would be the huge number of hours we combined for working. Added all up it would be five straight days. Besides that we added to their pet care resources and added to their budget. Im so glad that we could give our time to such a deserving organization like CARE!

Logan Presscott
As our time at CARE is winding down I feel like my group is making an even bigger impact on my community. Last week, we hosted an event at Drury where a few dogs were brought to campus for the rest of the students a faculty to play with and walk as a way to bring in donations and make CARE become better known at Drury. The day after we hosted this event, one of the dogs, Rex, who was at the event got adopted! Not only did the dogs have great time at the event, in order to get away from the shelter for a while, but the students who showed up all had a great time as well. I have seen so many dogs come and go from the shelter and I learned so much about the shelter and just how much volunteers mean to the CARE staff. After volunteering this semester and becoming close to many of the dogs, I plan on returning to the shelter as much as I can to continue to make a difference.

Jamen Helton
Working at CARE this semester has been great. I have gotten to know so many new animals and people alike. I have found that working at CARE was definitely not as easy as I initially thought. You really need to take time to put in good work so the shelter can function. This month we had our big event for CARE- "Dogs on Campus". This event was a fundraiser where we brought 3 dogs from the shelter to Drury and we were able to have students and professors alike donate multiple items as well as play with the animals. This event was a big success we were able to take some donations for CARE and allow the students of Drury to enjoy some company before finals.

The Team (plus Tux)

 DOG PILE!

 Blue Skies, Blue Shirts, Full Hearts

"Place Donations Here"

March

Blake Andrews
In the month of March, we have been able to take some great steps in fulfilling our goals for CARE. We have had the opportunity to meet with our community advisor to discuss some possibilities of fundraisers we could do. We decided on doing an event where our advisor would bring some animals to Drury and students could play with them. We would not have a fee, but donations would be welcomed. I think this could be a really great event! Currently we are trying to set up a meeting with our faculty advisor so we can set up a time and date. Once we do this, we plan on spreading the word by posting flyers around campus. I also hope that our faculty advisor (Dr. Julian) could possibly send an email out to let people know also. Currently we re having a hard time setting up this meeting time. We all have very different schedules. Once we get things going though I feel like this could be a huge success! I have completed all 15 hours.

Mitch Daniel
This month has been a decisive one. We finally got to meet with our new community advisor at CARE and begin the conversations about volunteer times. She has been very accessible to us, answering email and texts the same day. This is very helpful for us especially with our crazy schedules. For example if a class gets canceled unexpectedly we could contact her and ask if we may volunteer during that free time. This benefits that shelter as well because those are the times that they need help the most and we are typically not able to volunteer. Another significant thing about this month is that while in our group meeting we finally decided on what we would like our semester project to be. We first discussed what the shelter really needs and what could we provide them. We kept going back to the fact that they just don't have the all resources that they could need. This lead us to begin brain-storming ideas for a fundraiser. We tossed a few ideas around until we landed on a project that we heard about some organization doing on campus last year. We decided we would do a Puppy-Play-Date. We would bring in some puppies from CARE and for a donation students and faculty could play with them for as long as they like. It would be stress relieving fun for Drury, socializating fun and time out of a cage for the dogs, and hopefully a considerable donation to CARE. We are all looking forward to this event.

Logan Prescott
When I went back to CARE for the first time since first semester, I noticed several differences in the shelter. First there were about 30 new dogs in the shelter that I had never seen before. The shelter looked overcrowded for once. So overcrowded that dogs had to be put in the back on display instead of out front where the visitors can see them. It reminds me every time I volunteer of just how many dogs really need a home in Springfield and that they are all deserving of one. We came up with a great idea this semester on having a play day at Drury with the some of the dogs and cats of CARE. Students at Drury would come and play with the dogs around lunchtime and donations would be given to the shelter if they choose to do so. This is a amazing opportunity for the students of Drury to get to know the CARE animal shelter and to get to know some of the animals we get to work with every day.

Jamen Helton
Working at CARE this semester has been great. Our new community advisor has been fantastic at working with us. I feel like her presence at the shelter has been a pleasant surprise after we weren’t quite sure what to expect. I really feel like I am apart of the shelter and I am working towards something. This semester has been awesome so far after completing around 6 hours I am looking forward to getting to the shelter more often and giving my services to them. We haven’t really done anything differently than first semester except for the fact that we are planning to host a fundraiser and are very hopeful and are excited to put it on as well as help the shelter to be the best it can be.

Wazzzuuuppp???!!

February Post

Blake Andrews

For the month of February, I have already completed a lot of my hours for volunteering. In the fall semester, I went to the Springfield location. This spring semester I have been going to the Ozark location. I like the Ozark location a lot. It is a lot better than the Springfield location. There is more room for the animals and more space in general. I have also been able to make some great relationships with the staff there. This semester we have a new community partner, Anna. We have not met, but have been texting her to set up volunteer times. Right now I have twelve hours completed. Once I am done with my hours, I plan to focus on how we can use the budget to help CARE. This is where my focus will be this semester and hope to make something happen.

Mitch Daniel

This semester started out very busy academically and athletically. I have not yet had the opportunity to visit either location of CARE. In the next few days I plan on making my first visit. I will use my time at CARE to continue the good work that we did last semester and use my experience from last semester to focus on the things that needed our help the most. One of our main goals for this semester is to plan some kind of a fundraiser that we could use to raise money for the purchase of the items that CARE has requested through there wish list.

Logan Prescott

 Coming into the new semester I am ready to get back into the groove of once again working with 

the CARE. First semester was an amazing experience working with all of the dogs with most all of 

them becoming adopted as time went by. I am hoping that for this semester there will be even more 

adoptions from both of the CARE locations and that we will continue to make an impact working with 

the shelter. For this semester, I am hoping that we will get to work with the Ozark locations since we 

did not work with them as much in the first semester and because there are more dogs and cats there 

due to a much larger facility that there is in Springfield. Again I am looking forward to this semester and working with the dogs again.

Jamen Helton

I have found working with C.A.R.E. has really helped me as a person. Knowing how working with C.A.R.E. has really helped me along with my group members. This semester has already brought change with our C.A.R.E. advisor no longer being at the shelter. Learning how to work with our new advisor has been an interesting, but not bad experience. Our new advisor has been very good about getting us hours as well as communicating with us. I feel like the change while unexpected will be a welcome addition to our experience. So far this semester I have only been able to make it to C.A.R.E. a few times and am really looking forward to working with our new advisor and all of our new friends at the shelter.

Stylin' and Smilin'

 Cool Runnings

*SLURP*

"Pick me, Pick me!"

November and December

Blake

November

In the month of November I was able to help my group in a tremendous way. At the beginning of the year CARE gave us a wish list of things they needed. I was able to go out and get our budget card and go to Wal-Mart to get these items. Logan and I bought some cat litter, bleach, a trash bags, and laundry detergent. We were also able to get some more shredded paper and give it to the shelter. In this month we also met with both our faculty advisor and community partner. With our faculty advisor we discussed how our project has been going and different ways we could use our budget. That went swell. I also met with our community partner to discuss volunteering times. I gave her the supplies we bough and we talked. Overall, the month of November has been very productive, I have been able to achieve a lot of the Summit requirements and help the group achieve some of the goals we set at the beginning of the year.

December

Well for the month of December, we haven’t had much time to do things. Before Thanksgiving break though we were able to achieve a lot. We were able to meet as a group and complete our mid-year evaluation and Group Project presentation. It was very important for us to complete these tings before break. These assignments are all due December and right when we get back from break. Being able to get things done before break was a great achievement for our group who sometimes likes to do things at the last minute. As a team we have been able to grow closer together because of this experience. Things went very well this semester and we can’t wait for the spring. ; )

Logan

November

 As the months keep passing, my time at CARE has been even better then the previous month. But it shocks me how many pets do not have homes in just Springfield. As more and more pets become adopted; more homeless pets are brought in to the shelter. There are two dogs in specific that have been there since before we started volunteering. Every time I come to the shelter I hope that they will have homes but unfortunately they are always there. Although I have had a few scrapes and bruises, I completely understand that it is all a part of the job and I still have a fun time helping out and spending time with the animals.

December

Our first semester working with CARE went even better than I imagined it to be. We still enjoy working with the animals. Recently, we have received an anonymous donation of dog and cat food that the shelter has put to good use. Every time we come to the shelter with items they desperately need, they are very grateful and joy us helping out. This semester has been great and look forward to another semester with CARE. 

Mitch

November

I cant believe that its is already November and we have been working at CARE for this many months. Every time I go there I get to have a new experience even thought we typically go at the same time of day. My favorite job to do while volunteering at CARE is walking the dogs one last time before they are put in to their nighttime kennels. I like this daily task the best because I can tell how much the dogs enjoy every second that I am walking them outside on the small patch of grass. They use the short time they get to smell the air and play with you until I have to take them back inside to get the next dog. Even though the other tasks are obviously less fun and exciting I know that I am still doing something to improve the dogs stays at the shelter. And that's what my job is all about.

December

The semester is about over. And looking back I have had the most fun volunteering at CARE than I have anywhere else I my life. Their have been so many good encounters with good dogs that just want a home and the kindest most playful cats that just want to love you. It is alarming how many stray animals there are in our area. It is clear that there is not enough being done to solve the problem. I just wish there was more we could do to improve this problem on our own. I am looking forward to the next semester and all the good we can hopefully do to help these animals in need.

Jamen

November

Working with CARE this month has been an amazing experience. I feel like I have really grown as a person. The staff is amazing and very selfless to give up their time to the animals and I wish there were more people like them. I have found working with CARE to be an amazing experience and I really enjoy working with all the animals. Ever since we have been at CARE there has been a huge adoption rate (I’m not saying it’s because of us but it is awesome to see the shelter doing so well). In the last few weeks the adoption rate has skyrocketed and there were somewhere around 9 adoptions in one weekend! This semester has been great it was really allowed me a chance to forget about school for a few hours and just help out a place in need. This has been a great stress relief for me and I’m looking forward to the rest of the semester.

December

Working with CARE this semester has been an awesome experience. I am so glad that we chose this shelter for our project. I feel like we have been able to make a positive impression on the shelter and have allowed the actual staff’s jobs to be a lot easier. I am really looking forward to next semester. I feel like we have an opportunity to do even more for the shelter than we did first semester now that we have some experience under our belts. We have some ideas in the making to get necessary supplies they need to operate at the level they do. Working with CARE has been great for me especially because it also provides a stress relief from school and allows me to forget about everything and just focus on helping a good cause.

First Post

First Post

Blake

My experience with CARE so far for the month of September has been outstanding! I have achieved so much in so little time already. I helped keep the shelter clean and walked dogs making their time at CARE much more enjoyable. I have experienced what it is like to help out at a not for profit organization. I love the feeling that I receive when i volunteer at CARE. I feel like I am making a difference. There have not been any challenges with volunteering so far. It has been very good. CARE relies entirely on donations. Our group provided shredded newspaper for the dogs to use at night-time.

Mitch

This past month of helping at the animal shelter for Castaway Animal Rescue Effort has been a tremendous learning experience. At the start of it all, I thought I knew what the purpose of an animal shelter was. I would have said it was a place to keep pets that do not  have owners and will hopefully be adopted by families that will care for them. Now that I am more familiar with the going-ons I look at these organizations in a much different light. On every visit to the shelter I get to observe or experience a new method to improve the lives of these animals in need. The dedicated staff at the Springfield and Ozark locations do so much for the dogs and cats, but they would not be able to provided the same level of service without us and the other devoted volunteers. This is why I am so glad CARE would allow us to give our time to such a great organization.

Logan 

In my first time volunteering at he Castaway Animal Rescue Effort shelter, I know that my group had made the right decision in choosing our Summit Project. I knew that many groups in the past had also chosen CARE as their project as well and upon completing my first experience at the shelter, I knew why. CARE is a no kill animal shelter that functions completely off of donations and volunteers. There was always something for my roommates and myself to help out with and kept us busy throughout the whole time. It was unbelievable how many dogs and cats did not have homes or loving families to live with especially since everyone of them wanted to give love right back. I received my first battle scar that day when I was taking one of the dogs out of a high cage when a stray toe nail somehow ended up in my mouth giving me a fat lip. That same dog ended up being, and still is, my favorite dog I have met yet. The hardest part about volunteering is leaving the animals at the shelter. It is always hard leaving a friend behind especially when they have no home. I feel great every time I visit the shelter and do not mind doing any task that is asked of me. Again, I am glad that we chose CARE and cannot wait to see what the future holds.

Jamen
My first time at CARE was about what I expected. I helped clean out cages, walked the dogs, and fed and watered them. Although it was about what I expected on the work end of things I didn’t really realize just how much the volunteers mean to CARE. If we weren’t there then the jobs would be a lot more demanding and the shelter wouldn’t be able to function. Another thing I was surprised at was just how little room the Springfield location had to walk the animals and play with them. I felt terrible for the dogs when I could only take them on this small patch of grass in a parking lot. My first time at CARE and I made a few new friends. Leo was the most awesome dog ever and I really wish that I could have taken him home with us. This will be one of the hardest parts for me at least is knowing that I really can’t take all of these animals home and take care of them. This shelter does amazing work, and I feel like this is going to be a good experience for me because I will be helping a shelter that really needs it along with making a lot of new friends (the animals) along the way. I am looking forward to the rest of the semester working with this shelter and learning more about myself along the way.

I Love You

Hugs and Kisses

Best Buds

SMILE

Second Post

Blake

The month of October at CARE has been really great. I finished my 15 required hours for Summit this month and I am trying to incorporate more. During my time at Care this month I performed a lot of duties similar to those in September. I cleaned the dogs’ cages, washed dishes, and walked the dogs. I also got to experience one of the not so fun aspects of working at the animal shelter. I got nipped by a puppy during one of my visits and had to cope with that. This was a great learning experience for me because it showed me how in life you are always going to have to deal with different obstacles. This month we also met with our faculty advisor and that was very beneficial. We have still been donating shredded paper for the shelter to use. This month at CARE was really great.

Mitch

During the month of October I was only able to get in one visit to the CARE shelter. This is because I have been too busy managing my time elsewhere. The beginning of this week was the first time I was able to go. We are on the schedule to work during a certain time during the week. This time is later on monday. However I was never able to go because of conflicts with other activities. The biggest conflict has been my architecture classes. Every Monday for the past while now I have had something due that next day and needed to stay in the studio to finish that project. The one time I was able to help at the CARE shelter i did somethings that i had never done before at that location. My first task at the shelter was to put all the towels and linens in the dryer. This was the first time i did that at CARE but was already very very good at it because I had done it a few time before. My second task at CARE was to take out the dogs for a short five to ten minute walk. I had never done this at this location was was surprised when I opened the cage door and the dog squeezed past me and on to the floor. Luckily the dog did not want to get away because the door to the building was propped open. When i turned around the dog was just standing there waiting for the leash. I continued to cautiously take the dog and the rest on their short walk before putting them in there cages. It was an all around fun visit. 

Logan

As the four of us are starting to get more used to volunteering at CARE and with the tasks that 

the staff have been giving us, it has become even more of a greater experience. The more that 

we have been volunteering, the more variety of tasks that the staff have given us. In our first 

few weeks of volunteering there were a couple of dogs that the staff would not allow us to walk 

but since we have become more used to the shelter, the staff have allowed us to walk every dog. 

Even though I have been playfully bite by a couple dogs a few times, everything is still going 

well and I am having a great time working with the dogs and doing anything I possibly can to 

help.

Jamen

 Working at C.A.R.E. has been a fantastic experience so far. I have really enjoyed working with all the animals throughout this semester. I have also really enjoyed getting to know and working with all the other volunteers and employees. These are truly amazing people who really care about the animals and about finding them a home. Since we have started volunteering here at C.A.R.E. they have had a lot of success in finding homes for the animals. I has been an awesome experience and I look forward to seeing more of this amazing non-profit organization at work. My favorite moment at C.A.R.E. so far was when I got to take one of the dogs out and help with an adoption I was talking to the potential owner and was telling them all about this awesome dog, and come to find out that the next day the dog was adopted. I was so excited the the wonderful dog finally found a good home.