These elementary school students decided to help out in the promotion of shelter animals in their search of forever homes in the most wonderful way.
The group of second-graders from St. Michael’s Episcopal School in Richmond, Virginia made stunning artwork that included handwritten letters and drawings addressed to the potential dog and cat adopters as if they were told from the animals’ perspective.
One of the letters said “Hello. I’m Pitato Chip. I’m a Pitbull! I won’t hurt you, I’ll give you lots of kisses! Slurp! I like the animal shelter, but I want to live with you!”
The director of Richmond Animal Care & Control, Christie Peters, said that she’s been working with her son’s teacher, Kensey Jones, on this project. And, Jones came up with the idea for these lovely letters, explained Peters.
A Unique Way to Help Shelter Animals Find Forever Homes
According to Peters, the class was working on persuasive writing and these letters were written as if the animals were speaking to their potential adopters. And, this was the coolest idea so Peters agreed right away.
The students were assigned to write a letter for a specific dog or cat from RACC, according to St. Michael’s representative. The kids were “briefed” on the temperament and background of the animals they were assigned.
The stories, along with the illustrations, were hung on the outside of the animals’ kennels as motivation for the potential adopters to take one of the animals home and care for them, giving them all the love they deserve.
According to Jones who is also a volunteer in RACC, this project collaboration with kids from the classroom enabled her to combine her two biggest passions, the literacy of kids and helping animals who need it the most.
She also added how proud she is of her students who got the opportunity to help out and write these persuasive handwritten paragraphs for the shelter animals.
The Handwritten “Adopt Me” Messages Already Helped Out
One family from Richmond adopted a dog from the shelter after seeing the handwritten “adopt me” note. The local students’ messages motivated the adopters to take an animal home. Other eight animals were also adopted after the adopters read the beautiful stories.
For one of the second-graders who participated in the project, Danielle Petroski, all dogs deserve a warm and happy home, especially Snow who is the puppy ambassador. Petroski added that she’s happy that she can help out neglected animals.
Peters says that the kids wrote 24 stories for dogs and one for a cat. The kids were instructed to focus their letters on the oldest residents of the shelters who will need all the extra help they can get to finally find a home.
Jones concludes that this was a creative collaboration to increase the awareness for adoption and she hopes other animal shelters will follow their example or do a similar thing.
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