A Valuable Learning Experience

We believe that we have learned many valuable lessons through our service project this year. Some have been basic, such as how to best serve the needs of the animals we work with; others have been more personal as we learned leadership skills. Although we all have pets, it has been a very different experience to work with animals at the shelter. These animals were not familiar with us and we were not familiar with them unless they had been there for a while, so sometimes it was more of a challenge to work with them. It was disheartening to think about the tough lives that some of these animals had experienced prior to coming to CARE.

Although we were usually unable to volunteer together as we would have liked to, our leadership skills have greatly improved. We still had to use teamwork when we worked with other volunteers to accomplish the tasks that needed to be done. We also had to learn accountability - we were expected to volunteer at the same time every week, to ensure that there would be enough volunteers at all scheduled shifts; additionally, we needed to each complete our 15 hours of service. Each of us ended up surpassing the 15-hour requirement. Through these many hours of volunteering, we often had to step outside our comfort zones. We learned that we needed to act confident around the dogs, even if we didn't feel that way, so the dogs would not sense our discomfort and become more rowdy. Also, volunteering at CARE involved a lot of poop. Whether it was in the back kennels where they sleep, outside in the gravel parking lot where they walk, or in the front cages where the public can look at the dogs, poop was almost everywhere. Cleaning it up isn't fun, but it's a necessity and a part of the job.

Our project that we proposed was not much different than what we actually ended up doing this year. We each volunteered weekly and assisted CARE in any way that we could. We did originally plan to hold a few events, such as a possible clothing drive for the CARE Thrift Store, but it was much more difficult to get all four of our group members together in order to plan event such as this, despite living in the same house. We did not anticipate this difficulty.

Overall, we all feel very fortunate to have participated in the Summit Leadership Community here at Drury, and are glad that we were able to help make a difference in the lives of animals. We have all learned lessons and had experiences this year that we will never forget.