College students volunteer for Pet Friends project
Gavilan college students from campus clubs Science Alliance and
Rho Alpha Mu gathered at Pet Friends and Rescue animal shelter, off
of Buena Vista Road, for a garden Clean-up on Oct. 25, from 9 a.m.
to 4 p.m.
College students volunteer for Pet Friends project
Gavilan college students from campus clubs Science Alliance and Rho Alpha Mu gathered at Pet Friends and Rescue animal shelter, off of Buena Vista Road, for a garden Clean-up on Oct. 25, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Natalie LaCorte and Eva Arizmendi coordinated the event along with Don and Teri Klein of Pet Friends. The two presented the idea to both their clubs a month ago and quickly got a big response.
“We got such a huge response, at which point I knew it was going to be huge,” said LaCorte, vice president of Rho Alpha Mu. “Up to 25 people showed up to help out.”
“I’ve been volunteering here for six years and I’ve worked here for three,” said Arizmendi. “Throughout the years I’ve seen this place expand but at the same time the care for it has dropped.”
Along with Pet Friends animal shelter, the Kleins own five acres behind the animal shelter. With those five acres, the Kleins decided to put a huge garden open to the public for people to walk around and enjoy the natural scenery of the area.
“I’ve lived in Hollister my whole life and I didn’t even know this place was here,” LaCorte said.
The two groups worked side by side to complete all that needed to be done. When asked about the goals of the cleanup, Josh Sanchez, a member of Science Alliance, had this to say: “We’re here to do whatever they need done, to make it look pretty. We’re here to make the trails presentable so people can come out here and relax. Also people can bring dogs from the shelter out here and get to know them on a more personal level rather than in a kennel.”
Volunteers from both groups were put into separate teams so that all of the work could be spread out.
“We got team leaders – anyone could have been a team leader – and we came out on Friday to do a walk through of the area and so Teri could show us what she wanted done,” LaCorte said. “The day of cleaning, we broke off with the leaders. Everything was really organized.”
“We wanted to get as much of the area as we could,” said one volunteer, Natalie Peer who is a member of both Science Alliance and Rho Alpha Mu. Peer and other volunteers, such as Adam Godoy, were all excited to be out there and worked nonstop to get the area clean.
“I was really excited to come out here. I actually like yard work. It’s therapeutic,” Peer said. “I wanted to give back to my community and get a lot of volunteer hours so it worked out good.”
Said Godoy, a member of the science alliance: “One of the goals is to help the community and the environment so this was a nice place to help out, especially since this is an animal shelter.
“Everything turned out really nice and more people came than expected,” said Godoy. “I think they did a really great job.”
The clean-up turned out to be a huge success and everyone had a good time working together.
“I’m really grateful to all the volunteers and it has been a really great turnout; we’re accomplishing a lot,” Arizmendi said.
