Personal Narrative: My Senior Service Learning Project

For my senior service learning project I worked with Another Chance for Animals. They are an organization who works with Evansville Animal Control to find foster and forever homes for the animals there so that they do not have to be euthanized. The main events that I attended where PetSmart adoption events from 9 A.M. until 3 P.M. every Saturday, My jobs included walking the dogs around the store, taking them outside to use the bathroom, cleaning crates, and talking to potential adopters about the dogs. I also attended a craft show that ACA put on and worked their merchandise table for seven hours. I have volunteered with multiple different places before, such as Catalyst Food Pantry and Tekoppel Elementary tutoring students, for long periods of time. There were many people who helped me along the way of my project, but my main mentor was Vicky Smith, She is the volunteer
coordinator for ACA and oversees the adoption events.
She worked with me a lot to help me find events that fit into my schedule and was very flexible on allowing me to show up whenever I needed in order to get my hours. During this project I learned many valuable lessons, but I would say that the two that have stuck with me most are the impact of volunteering and the importance of selflessness. ACA is a completely volunteer run organization and would not be here to help the animals if it were not for volunteers like myself who devote their personal time during the week through the goodness of their heart. Volunteers help to ensure that no animals are euthanized and foster dogs who are at a potential risk for euthanization even if puts a strain on themselves. I did not realize until after completing my volunteer
hours how much of an impact I made. I helped many dogs find their forever homes and provided joy to the adopters by acquainting them with their new furry friend. These dogs may have been euthanized if it had not been for me reaching out to complete strangers as they passed by looking at the dogs. Walking up and talking to strangers about adoptions definitely stretched my normal social bounds and made me more comfortable with talking to people. This project also stretched me emotionally because it was upsetting to see the condition that some of the dogs were in due to their previous owner’s carelessness. I just had to continue to tell myself that they were in good hands now and would live out the rest of their life with nothing but love surrounding them. If I was given the opportunity to redo this project, I think that I would have also tried to volunteer for a few hours at their office on Mondays and Thursdays. I would definitely recommend that future seniors do a senior project volunteering with animals because they could truly see the impact they are making and feel great about helping the animals. I never felt like it was a chore to attend the adoption events or something I was forced to do. I enjoyed my time working and had a lot of fun playing and spending time with the animals. I would give myself a 100% percent on this project because I completed more than the required amount of hours, made an impact on the community, and truly realized the importance of volunteering.