The world loves animals, from cats to dogs, and Kaity Zheng is one of those people. Zheng is a junior at Francis Lewis High School and president of the Shelter Buddies club. Zheng realized that spreading animal welfare and animal awareness at Francis Lewis was minimal, and that encouraged her to create a club so students would be able to learn about the issue while also having fun.
“I hope that this club can raise more awareness in places like the animal shelter community because there are so many endangered animals out there, and also animals who are not as privileged,” Vice-President Yihan Jin said. “I hope to raise awareness and be able to have people like help out the shelter, like do drives and raise supplies and stuff for the animals and stuff like that.”
The Shelter Buddies Club impacts Francis Lewis High School in many different ways, and they had to go through different obstacles to even be able to do the things they do today.
“One of the major things was obviously its goal to spread awareness.” Zheng said. “Honestly, when I did my application for the club, I wasn’t sure if it was going to get approved. In the past year there was a club that was similar in terms of its goal, so I wasn’t sure if it was going to get approved.”
Members of the club have the benefit of getting volunteer experience outside of school, according to Zheng.
“We introduce our members to volunteer opportunities outside of school,” Zheng added, “where they can get head-on experience, and not only get volunteer hours, but contribute back to the community through education, such as educating youth about animal welfare.”
The Shelter Buddies Club doesn’t just help spread awareness about animals, but allows people to earn certain future skills they will later need in life.
“And I hoped that by joining this club, it can help with my leadership skills,” Jin said. “It can also help me develop more skills that can further benefit me in the medical field in the future and integrate that with things like engineering and other things.”
Zheng and other board members who contribute to the Shelter Buddies Club also incorporate games and online platforms into their meetings so that current and incoming members can be more involved.
“Such as little arts and crafts projects while learning about animal welfare,” Zheng said. “Something we’ve done pretty often was utilizing online platforms, like Kahoot, Booklet, and others. This way we can incorporate competitions and gaming, while they still get to learn about animal welfare.”
By using these tactics and letting the members have friendly competitions from time to time, it helps them grow to learn more while genuinely enjoying themselves.
“I have a lot of respect for them because they’re also very hardworking people,” Jin said. “I’m glad that I got to work with them this year and that we all got to grow together and learn more like in the animal shelter community.”
Advisor Mr. Valaco believes that “this is the best club that’s ever been run that I have advised” and believes that the school has become a better community since the club has been founded.
“In the past, I’ve been an advisor for the Filipino Club,” Mr. Velasco said. “So, different interests allow different groups of people to come together and I think it’s a very big thing in a school that is very large like this one. And the Shelter Buddies give people an opportunity to meet new people in those circumstances.”
