Community members came out to make toys and treats for local shelter animals
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Palmyra Community Center held a “Day of Giving Back” event for community members to help shelter animals.
The community center held the event in conjunction with Friends of the Burlington County Animal Shelter and HousePaws Mobile Veterinary Service.
Friends of the Burlington County Animal Shelter is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization that “cooperates with the county animal shelter to care for shelter pets and place them into adoptive homes.” The volunteers interact with shelter animals to keep them busy and happy and help to get them out of shelters.
HousePaws Mobile Veterinary Service is a portable animal hospital that offers in-home veterinary care. Lisa Aumiller, owner of HousePaws, says she offers everything from wellness care to sick care.
“We’re really big with the community, and we do a lot of community events. A lot of kids love to work with animals so we came up the idea to make homemade treats and homemade toys for the shelter animals,” Aumiller said.
The Palmyra Community Center saw about 100 people come to donate toys and make new toys and healthy, homemade treats for animals at the Burlington County Animal Shelter during the three-hour event.
“We’ve done several events at the Palmyra community center. It’s a great center,” Aumiller said.
This is the third year the event has been held at the Palmyra Community Center. Aumiller says a huge plus of holding events at the center is there is a gym available for kids when they need a break from making toys and treats.
Aumiller says she thinks local service events such as these are great because a lot of people want to give back on Martin Luther King Jr. Day — they just don’t know how to.
“It’s either a park cleanup in the cold or this,” Aumiller said. “For kids, it’s just so much fun.”
Many community members made the event a family outing. HousePaws also held a similar event in Voorhees this year.
Aumiller says attendees made 20 freeze bags of treats for the shelter animals and two big bags of dog toys. They also donationed three trash bins full of pet toys.
Aumiller says she thinks giving back to animals is important because “they’re always giving to us.”
“Kids don’t get a way to connect with animals very often. This was a nice way that they could feel like they were contributing,” Aumiller said. “If they learn how to take care of animals, they learn how to take care of everybody. Kindness is something that you learn at a basic level, and it extends to all areas of your life.”
