MANCHESTER – Canines, kids, parents and educators were all happy when the township high school Student Leadership Class hosted an All Fur One (AFO) Fair at Manchester Middle School.
Students set up informational tables about how to volunteer, foster, and adopt with AFO along with displaying student projects, crafts, games, and refreshments. Volunteers from AFO brought adoptable dogs and cats for potential adopters to meet.
Three families were able to adopt puppies and go home with them that day. Also, the MTHS National Honor Society donated $325 that they raised for AFO by holding a car wash the previous weekend.
Earlier in the year, middle school students served up a delicious means of helping shelter dogs in the form of ‘Pupcakes.’
MTMS 7th Grade teacher Bella Toto’s Family and Consumer Science Class baked the pupcakes to donate to the All Fur One Pet Rescue and were featured at All Fur One’s adoption event held in April.
Students learned about the importance of safe food ingredients for dogs while following a recipe and utilizing their measuring skills.
Toto noted that “the treats were given to dogs who are at the rescue, those at foster homes, and even some of the volunteers’ adopted dogs. All of the dogs loved them.”
The volunteers at All Fur One passed on their thanks and appreciation to the students and are continuously impressed with the involvement of our school district with their non-profit organization.
MTMS teacher Kristine Laporte, who forged the partnership between the school and the non-profit agency, said that she had previously volunteered for All Fur One and it “is a great opportunity that incorporate kids. You can volunteer there as young as six years old as long as you have a parent with you and all the way up to 100 years old if you want to put in the time to help them.”
“I started going there with my son and really enjoyed it and then started talking to the people there because one of their goals is community outreach – to not only recruit volunteers but to increase awareness of animal welfare in the community,” she added.
Laporte realized that schools were a great place to start because “these are all easy topics to incorporate into the standards we already have to teach and it would hopefully increase student engagement. They all love to talk about their pets and animals.”
Thus, was born a program to reach students and families through the school district. “Since I work here this was our pilot program,” Laporte added.
The Manchester Times also spoke with 7th grade students who are members of the Impact Club. Alexa McCarthy, Olivia Ferrara, Zuzanna Wrazen, Isabella Giamarino and Jolene Lyszczak about their involvement in the program.
Alexa said, “for the March Meowness program which was a fundraiser but we incorporated a lot of the student body into it and made it a fun theme and a competition. We passed out brackets and the students had to guess which cat or dog would win in being considered the cutest. We made money off of that and incorporated students into it.”
Laporte said students paid a dollar for a bracket and could buy as many brackets as they wanted. “Only the students that bought brackets could win a prize but everyone in the school district including staff could vote and we raised more than $400.”
Jolene said, “it was fun to be able to help out and be involved in this and to give them a nice treat.”
“I feel that it was a nice thing to do for the dogs and I was able to help out and make them feel happy,” Isabella added.
Olivia said that in her language arts class “we have to pick a dog or cat or any animal for adoption and we have to make a poem about them.”
Zuzanna said for Meow Madness the Impact Club members “decorated this cart and it made it very appealing to sell the brackets. Many would buy more than one and because many were competitive, they would buy multiple which would raise more money.”
The winner got a basket of candy and teachers and staff got a jeans coupon to wear jeans on the day they wanted.
The School District’s elementary schools recently had a visit from an Ocean County Library librarian for a project in conjunction with All Fur One.
“She is doing a program through the library where the students are recommending books for other kids to read but it will be from the point of view of the cats that are up for adoption so the books are going to match the personalities of the cats. We’re trying it out in a third-grade class and we’ll see how it goes and expand it, if possible,” Laporte said.
“We are incorporating reading and literacy skills with a volunteer program,” she added.
Toto said, “there are definitely life skills that they learn and take with them their entire life in every aspect. The community connection is beautiful.”
Laporte said All Fur One is thrilled with the success of the program and that they have a section on their website dedicated to education. “They are always giving us praise on social media. I hope the program expands and it is something the teachers enjoy and that it is not more work piled onto them but another way to teach what they already have to teach but in a more fun way.”
