EXPERIENCES | serve2015

Feeding America (8 hours)

What?

A Saturday morning SERVE-only trip where we cleaned and sorted food donations. I was impressed by the number of cans we sorted, let alone to think of how many go in and out of that single facility if groups like ours come and do that almost every day. These donations feed hungry families every day, who may not have any food at all if it wasn’t for Feeding America.

So What?

The amount of dust on the cans, and just how dirty your hands got in general from moving the cans (even after they’d been cleaned!) was surprising. I also had a lot more fun than I expected. The time really flew by!

Now What?

I would love to do more work with Feeding America in the future. They are a wonderful organization; the work they do can continue for a while and still be just as useful as it is today. It can sometimes be hard to see the suffering within your own community, especially when it takes place behind closed doors. I didn’t realize how prevalent this issue was.

Alpacas in Paris (52 hours)

https://www.magisto.com/int/album/video/MDdwQFpAFVF_LCUGDmEwCX16?l=vsm&o=i&c=c

What?

I went on a VT Engage trip to Paris Barns in Paris, VA, a forever sanctuary for livestock and farm animals. It was amazing – I don’t think I’ve ever seen animals treated that well and naturally. We helped by moving hay, checking on the animals, collecting eggs, and cleaning out their entire garden for the winter, picking a few pounds of grape tomatoes, and some onions they’d long forgotten about.

So What?

If anything, this trip only strengthened my love of farming and animals. I love the idea of living sustainably, and this farm produces about 40-50 eggs per day, as well as all kinds of milk, wool, honey and beeswax, and more. It was interesting to hear the owners talk about how most of their volunteers aren’t as eager to work as we were, and are usually there by some sort of requirement. We were offering to do more jobs than they would’ve ever asked; Harley and I even helped one of the owners reupholster a couch, so she had time to do her daily farm duties. It is surprisingly hard for a lot of these kinds of animals (sheep, goats, cows, emus, pigs, alpacas, llamas, chickens, turkeys, and more) to find homes. If they don’t they’re often put down, which is needless and, in my opinion, ridiculous and horrifyingly cruel. If we had more places like Paris Barns, a lot more of these animals would be living full and happy lives.

Now What?

This farm came to be when the owners realized the number of farm animals with nowhere to go, either once they’d grown too big to be a family pet anymore, or they were deemed no longer good enough for whatever reason. Finding homes for animals will never achieve an opposite deficit of what we have now, which is too many unwanted animals and not enough homes. I’m definitely going to raise more awareness of this issue just by word of mouth, as well as attending more trips and maybe leading a few of my own in the coming years.

BARC (5 hours)

What?

BARC is a club of volunteers who socialize and walk the dogs in the vet school kennels. They often don’t get much human interaction, it’s honestly sad. You are required to do 5 walks each semester. And, I mean, who wouldn’t be willing to get volunteer hours while literally just playing with puppies? It was difficult at first, as the check in system is much regimented and has been worked on and changed a few times this fall. It could be very frustrating sometimes, when we couldn’t get to see the dogs because we couldn’t get in through the newest system or because of a lack of communication between each party.

So What?

Sometimes the job can be gross. There are about 40 dogs or so total, probably 25-30 of which are fairly young. I guess the vet school doesn’t take time to house train them, so the kennels can get smelly and loud. Even with the mandatory ear phones in the kennels. But, there just aren’t enough people to take every dog out every day, meaning being stuck in their kennel for 24+ hours at a time isn’t unusual for the dogs. Our roll in BARC is extremely important; with over 150 members, we make a big impact in these dogs’ lives.

Now What?

Again, word of mouth is the best way to get the dogs out more. When I tell people about a club where you get to go play with dogs, most people couldn’t imagine anything better in college! Dogs are known to be some of the most easily excitable and easy to please animals. Getting to see how happy they are running through the trees and mulch proves how essential this is to them becoming adoptable dogs one day.