Swanton, Ohio -- My Favorite Charity: The Toledo Area Humane Society
By: Stella Harmon
My name is Stella Harmon I am nine years old. In January I will be ten and I live in Swanton. I am in the fourth grade; I have loved animals since I can remember I like helping animals. Previously I lived in Bowling Green OH and had experience with the Wood County Humane Society. People help the Wood County Humane Society every year by holding a garage sale. The money raised is donated to the Wood County Humane Society. They do this garage sale every year the weekend before Memorial Day weekend at the Wood County Fairgrounds. This year the garage sale raised $33,235.64.
The garage sale is how people donate no longer used or waned items so they can be resold to help the Wood County Human Society. for the past 4 years I have been helping the Human Society by trying on all my clothes to find the ones that do not fit, or I don’t want and find my toys I have outgrown, or I don’t play with anymore. This was the first year I got to go help them set the garage sale up I was extremely excited. I helped sort and stock toys, kids clothing, women’s clothing, men’s clothing, and shoes. I had to check the size of clothing and every pair of shoes to make sure they were in the right spot. I also helped organize the jewelry and I helped put beds and bedding away. I had so much fun it felt like 20 minutes, but it was 3hours.
If you have been looking for a way to help your community, I recommend donating your time or items that you do not need or want. After moving to Swanton, I recently went to the Toledo Human Society. When I arrived, I spoke with the woman behind the reception desk, she informed me that she had been a volunteer for 10 years. She was nice and answered all my questions. Throughout my visit I saw dogs that were missing eyes, some without a leg, and one even had a cast on its hind leg. Some animals also need special medicine that is extremely expensive. I found out what type of animals they can help. I also found out how the Human Society functions daily, they rely heavily on volunteers. I learned how old you must be to volunteer; you need to be ten. I am almost ten, I want to a volunteer with the Toledo Area Humane Society after my 10th birthday. I got to interact with different animals while I was in the different stations. I spoke with several employees that were helping with different animals in each section, and I got to learn even more like why the kittens and puppies have paper collars, it is so they know what their names are. My favorite animal there was a kitten named pumpkin patch she was silly and chill.
The charity I would like to help, since I just recently moved, is the Toledo Area Humane Society. My reason for wanting to help them is because The Toledo Area Humane Society helps animals find homes and helps reunite them with their owners. As you can imagine it is expensive to help all these animals and I feel like they could really benefit from the share of the prize money I would receive, if I were to win.