Success Stories

Panthers Lend a Paw

The Kingwood Park Ninth Grade students in Humble ISD decided to do a service-learning project centered on helping abandoned animals.  They partnered with Volunteers for Animal Protection (VAP), a local no-kill animal shelter to plan an adoption day at the school.  The students, called the Panthers, met often during Den  (Advisory) and before or after school with their teacher and the VAP representative to plan the adoption day.

The students learned a great deal about the problem before they acted.  They met with school administrators about their plan, generated several power points to explain the project to all 9^th grade Advisories, and prepared speeches that were presented to staff and student audiences.  They also generated posters and fliers to place around the school and the community.  They invited the local media to help them advertise their adoption day, and learned about the different dogs that were at the shelter and how to care for them. 

After much planning, the students held their event on February 12, 2011.  Not only did VAP receive a lot of publicity, which helped with more adoptions and future volunteer recruitment, but the event led to eight dogs being placed in homes that day.  VAP reported that this was one of the most successful adoption days they had ever held.  Another benefit to the day was that it was a wonderful outing for the dogs since they are normally confined to cages at the shelter.  Throughout the day, many of the Kingwood students exercised by running and playing with the dogs. 

The students hope to make this an annual event.