The fifth grade students in Mr. Loughridge and Ms. Pittman’s classes at Plato Elementary School are participating in a service learning project this year. Students are visiting The Animal Shelter of Texas County (TASTC) for a few hours every other Saturday to help out in a variety of ways.
Students can be found playing with cats, walking dogs, bathing puppies, preparing treats or tossing balls and running with the dogs. “The animals love the attention from the children, and the kids love being here; it’s a positive experience for everyone,” said Nancy Studzinski, the elementary counselor who helped organize the project with Donnie Miller, Plato elementary principal.
The students became interested in working with The Animal Shelter of Texas County when stray dogs began showing up on campus after school started. They felt educating the community about the proper care and training of their pets was important. To begin this process, TASTC was invited to put on an assembly for students in kindergarten through the fifth grade.
Rita Romines, Beth Burch and Lucky the dog came to teach students about the origins of organizations that began caring for and protecting animals in our country. They also provided each student with a bookmark listing the steps for caring for their pets. Students who answered questions about the assembly correctly were given T-shirts from the shelter.
Mrs. Studzinski hopes that by forging a relationship between the students and TASTC children will learn about the life long responsibility of caring for a pet. The fifth grade service learning project dovetails nicely with the district’s character education program which emphasizes positive character traits such as respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, honesty, caring and citizenship. All of these traits come into play as the students give of their time and themselves in helping the shelter animals. It is a valuable learning experience for those students who choose to participate.
The fifth grade students who have already helped out at TASTC include: Shasta Blankenship, Hannah Breedlove, Madison Butts, Hannah Cervantes, Ashleigh Christensen, Bryce Duvall, Jaylan Miller, Sofia Reyes, Jacob Supancic, Dana Van Wolput, Jordan Washburn, and Wesley Wilson.