BLYTHEWOOD – When Blythewood High School sophomore Sarah Turner, 15, and senior Norah Velpula, 17, signed up to participate in their school’s Holiday Wishes program they were looking forward to making the holidays brighter for someone in need.
That ‘someone’ turned out to be about 15 dogs.
Winter wishes is an annual school-wide community service project that is scheduled for late November and early December. The program is project-based and each project is led by a pair of students serving as chairs and co-chairs. This year there are five projects, and each set of project chairs has until Dec. 7 to fund their projects.
The chairs partner with local school organizations – such as sports teams and academic clubs – who help raise funds, awareness and supplies aimed at supporting the community’s most vulnerable populations.
After considering many potential organizations, Sarah and Norah chose to chair a project to benefit Hoof and Paw.
Hoof and Paw Benevolent Society is a Blythewood non-profit, 501(c)3 organization dedicated to helping protect, comfort and improve the lives of neglected and abused animals in shelters and rescued in South Carolina. Their goal is to increase awareness of their cause, to support adoptions, encourage spay/neuter and promote education to the general public about responsible pet ownership.
“Norah and I both have dogs who live safely inside, but we worry about dogs living outside during the cold winter. This motivated us to help raise money for the less fortunate dogs that have little to no shelter.” Sarah said.
“After researching dog houses, we decided to purchase a type of igloo house from Amazon that will accommodate dogs that weigh up to 90 pounds. The dog houses cost about $150 each and are durable and easy to maintain. We think we can raise enough money to purchase 15,” she said. “That would be about $2,250 total. We’re really excited. We think we can do it.”
The girls have asked for assistance from Hoof and Paw to help distribute the dog houses where they are most needed. Some will be reserved for the Fairfield County Animal Shelter which frequently has more dogs than they have shelters.
There are two ways to donate to Sarah’s and Norah’s Hoof and Paw project: 1) Go to hoofandpaw.org and click on the donate button. Since there is no mechanism to specify what the donation is for, send a follow up email to Sarah at sarahjturner008@gmail.com or to Norah at norah.velpula@gmail.com noting the amount of the donation and that it is to be designated for the Hoof and Paw project. 2) Donations can also be made by checks made payable to Blythewood High School and dropped off at the school office in an envelope addressed to Hoof and Paw project, Room 4.
For more information about the Hoof and Paw project, email Sarah at sarahjturner008@gmail.com or Norah at norah.velpula@gmail.com
The overall leaders of the Holiday Wishes projects this year are Tajma Lott and Aniya Fluker. The other four projects that make up the school’s Winter Wishes program this year are: Epworth Children’s Home (leaders Ginny Benson and Anna Swindler); Richland 2 Classroom Libraries (Blu Martin and Asia Green); Richland 2 Backpack Program (Madison Freeman and Hannah Hardee); and Wanna Buddy (Taylor Huss and Nathan Haughton).
Project funding must be completed by Dec. 7.