With the sun shining bright on the first beautiful day of spring, students gathered together to enjoy the comfort of dogs. The event, aptly named Paws for a Cause, brought dogs from local shelters to campus and allowed students to interact with the adoptable dogs. This was mutually beneficial as the dogs received some love and students were able to relieve a little stress and pet some puppies. Over 100 people showed up to the event and helped support their cause. All of the money raised went to the shelters to help with their continued success.
When asked why this event was so important to the cause, Kappa Delta sister Megan Winters, ’20, said, “It is absolutely phenomenal because we are getting recognition for local shelters and it is a great thing for students at this point in the semester.”
Paws for a Cause took place on the lawn between New Hall and the Student Center. This location seemed to be perfect as students could, and did, stop in to pet the animals and interact with the volunteers, before heading up to the CDR to eat dinner.
Three shelters brought dogs with them for the event: The Humane Society of Greater Dayton, the Howelling Kennel Rescue and the Animal Welfare League of Clark County. These groups all are shelters for animals and work hard to provide the best for these animals. Each group brought papers and information to hand out to students to inform them of what they do, as well as how the adoption process works.
The Animal Welfare League of Clark County is a great example of the love that is shown to the animals. This shelter rescues homeless dogs and cats and they house over 125 pets. This shelter exists solely off of memberships, thrift store sales and fundraisers. On top of this, all of the workers are volunteers. So, the help from Witt students is extremely helpful in keeping the organization thriving.
The event could not have had a more beautiful day in mid-April. With it being sunny and in the 70s, students were able to enjoy the weather as well as the animals. Pop music rang through speakers as everyone happily enjoyed the sunshine. Can Jam, corn-hole and Frisbee were available for the students willing to play. For a low-price, students could also buy hot dogs, chips, cupcakes decorated to look like dogs and soda to raise even more money for the event. The two Greek organizations sold t-shirts to benefit their cause as well. The shirts were popular and many sizes sold out so information was being taken down to order extras. However, the main attraction was obviously the animals.
With 12 dogs spread around the area, students were free to move around to every animal. The dogs were an assortment of breeds and ages; many of the animals seemed to be young, but there were also some older dogs.
Students circled around the dogs both sitting and standing to get an opportunity to pet the animals. Eventually when the student population thinned out, some students began picking up the smaller animals and walking around with them. While petting the animals, many held on leashes by volunteers, students were informed both on the dog and the shelters.
Taylor Horton, ‘20, seemed to be really enjoying the event stating: “There are dogs everywhere and I can have cute dog cupcakes.
As Winters pointed out, this event was great for students as they are making the final push for the semester and seem to be constantly stressed. This event provided an escape for all of them as they were able to ignore responsibility for a couple hours and enjoy the dogs.
Overall, the event was a great success as many students visited and awareness was raised for the local shelters. Kappa Delta and Beta Theta Pi did a great job of pulling together this event and allowing students to relieve a little bit of stress.
