PAWS Teen Club 2021 Cohort Service Projects 

Making a difference in communities far and wide!

The PAWS Teen Club 2021 is well underway with a summer of learning and helping animals. The cohort of 19 teens are hard at work in implementing service projects that are inspired by PAWS’ mission. They are working to help solve some of the issues impacting pets and wildlife alike in our communities.  

The following stories are a sneak peek of what these teens are accomplishing this summer!  

Aiming to educate the masses, Abby is planning to collaborate with the PAWS Wildlife Center to interview a member of their staff about the most frequent questions that someone might have about bringing a wild animal to the center. This will allow more members of the community to learn about the process and engage a wider audience than just those who bring animals to the center.  

Addisyn recently was able to explore animal rescue and was inspired through PAWS Teen Club to help them. This rescue became a big part of Addisyn’s heart incredibly quickly and is so thankful that Teen Club is giving her the space to explore this newfound passion. 

During our visits from guest speakers, Annike was inspired by the mission that PAWS encourages all to live respectfully with our wild neighbors. She is putting together resources on how to respect some of the most common wild animals in Washington if you encounter them.  

Ayelet is incredibly interested in the protection of endangered species and is exploring ways to make a game for people to learn more about them.  

Dedicated to ensuring that all animals in shelters are well cared for, Cassidy is collecting donations for a shelter close to her heart. Through what she has learned in PAWS Teen Club, she has been inspired to help animal shelters that are providing a temporary home to homeless pets. 

Dahlia has learned about the benefits of native plants for our wild neighbors through the PAWS Teen Club and wants to help others learn as well! She will be planting a pollinator garden in her own backyard and documenting the process and making a guide for others do so as well! 

While most of the PAWS Teen Club members are from Washington state, one is from the other coast in New Jersey. Emily has been motivated through our guest speakers to increase awareness of wildlife rehabilitation centers in her home state! She will be working with her local community members to spread a message close to PAWS’ heart, inspiring compassionate action towards animals.  

While many members of the PAWS Teen Club are working solo on their projects, Emma, Lucy, and Zoey are quite the trio dedicated to improving habitats and food resources for our wild neighbors. They are driven to increase the number of native plants in their community due to the benefits they provide for animals. After listening to a guest speaker’s talk, as well as their own passions for wildlife conservation, they knew this was the project for them! They plan to plant a native plant garden and install a rain garden at their high school.  

Hailee is passionate about letting people know that they should not feed wildlife. During our guest speaker’s talk, Hailee learned that human food could cause wild animals to get sick. She knows that people are well-intentioned in their feeding of wild animals but sometimes just do not understand the consequences, so she is aiming to be the animals’ voice in her community.  

Working together, Hannah and Sam are on a mission to increase access for low-income families to necessary supplies to be responsible pet owners. Their goal is to raise awareness that some food banks gladly accept and distribute pet food in addition to human food as a local community resource. Through this, they will be running a “Pack the Pallet” fundraiser to gather donations for West Seattle Food Bank. They were inspired by PAWS veterinarian, Dr. Liz, who mentioned that sometimes one of the biggest issues pets face is the ability to stay in their own home due to lack of resources. 

While participating in the PAWS Teen Club, Logan has been inspired to start a similar club at his high school with the goal of spreading awareness of the same issues he has learned about this summer. He plans to launch the club at his school this fall and has goals of running a fundraiser that could in turn directly affect the lives of wild animals at the PAWS Wildlife Center.  

Lucas is a passionate advocate for animal training and will be compiling a guide on simple tricks you can teach your dog to improve your bond as well as make day-to-day activities easier for the both of you!  

Maya has noticed that in her neighborhood there is an alarming amount of trash in the streets. Through the PAWS Teen Club, she was inspired to make a change in her neighborhood community. She is planning to put up signs in the community explaining the diverse ways that trash can impact the wildlife members of her neighborhood. She will also be providing tips on how to make sure trash stays in trash cans. 

With a skill set that is unique to other members of the PAWS Teen Club, Owen is creating a video focused on ways to help keep pet cats from getting lost within the game, Minecraft! He is hoping to reach an audience that might not normally hear about PAWS’ mission and continue to engage with his following about issues that companion animals are facing. 

Shale is looking to use her incredible writing skills to tell the story of why our pet cats should remain indoor pets. She knows how tricky it can be to transition an indoor/outdoor cat to be only indoors and wants to share with others the tips and tricks that she has learned along the way.  

Inspired by the amazing work of the PAWS Wildlife Center, Sydney is leading a donation drive for needed supplies. She recognizes how much care goes into creating the ideal environments for all the species that they care for and wants to help ease the process by collecting donations of needed supplies!  

These teens will be completing their projects in the coming weeks with a culmination at the end of August. We can’t wait to update you on how they all turn out!  

Want to support the PAWS Teen Club? 

If you were inspired by any of their stories and would like to contribute to their service projects in the form of an in-kind donation or want to congratulate them on their achievements, please email education@paws.org.

 

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If you have additional questions about how to support the PAWS Teen Club or about the teens’ individual service projects, please email education@paws.org.

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