By Lora Owen
Special to the Post
Volunteers from Faithful Friends Animal Sanctuary pulled into the parking lot of Elizabeth Hanford Dole Elementary School recently in an SUV and a truck, with trailer in tow.
They checked in with the school office and, in the blink of an eye, an awe-inspiring “army” of fourth- and fifth-grade students started getting huge bags of aluminum cans out of a school storage building and loading them onto the vehicles.
The Leadership Team, made up of 20 fourth-graders and 20 fifth-graders, at Hanford Dole Elementary, likes to make a difference. For the second straight year, they chose to help homeless animals in our community by sponsoring a service project to benefit Faithful Friends, the group raising money to build a no-kill animal sanctuary.
Faithful Friends has been collecting aluminum cans from the public for almost a year now and sells the cans to a recycling buyer as an ongoing fundraiser.
Hanford Dole’s Leadership Team sponsored a schoolwide aluminum can collection drive during the month of March. With the help of their art teacher, the Hanford Dole students started by decorating Faithful Friends’ collection containers and placed them inside their school building.
Each morning in March, members of the Leadership Team stood inside the school’s cafeteria and main entrance accepting cans that were collected and donated by families, neighbors, teachers and staff.
Principal James Griffin encouraged parents to send cans to the school. The school custodial staff stored the cans until the final collection day.
Hanford Dole’s enthusiasm for helping needy animals energized Faithful Friends volunteers Jan and Dana Samuelson and Lora Owen.
Faithful Friends Vice President Dana Samuelson noted, “It was inspiring to see the school kids put so much time, effort and enthusiasm into this project. It never ceases to amaze me how the school children of Rowan County always rise to the occasion when asked to support a worthy cause. With the all the bags of cans collected here today, I would surely point to this as a good example of not only their commitment to the animals in our county, but also to their desire to make life better for all the citizens of Rowan County.”
To show the nonprofit group’s gratitude, volunteers presented a framed certificate of appreciation to the school.
Owen told the Leadership Team, “we know this plaque isn’t like bubble gum or a toy, and we already knew you were one of the best schools we have, but we want you to have this to share with your whole school for all to see and know that the 700-plus people that support Faithful Friends appreciate and thank you for working so hard to help us raise money for animals in our area.”
Jan Samuelson added, “This is what it is all about, if we all work, not by ourselves, but together as a team we can make a difference.”
Before the children went back to their classrooms, Spencer and Madison, cocker spaniel helper dogs, got to meet the Hanford Dole Leadership Team. These dogs have traveled many miles helping Faithful Friends pick up cans. With the white tips on their black tails going 90 miles an hour, they affectionately thanked the children in their own canine style of gratefulness.
The Leadership Team had set a goal for their school to collect at least 200 pounds of aluminum and they decisively exceeded this goal by giving Faithful Friends’ exactly 294 pounds of aluminum in cans and 4 pounds worth of insulated copper in the form of Christmas lights.
When the cans were sold, volunteers counted 75 bags, all collected by Hanford Dole students ó the most that Faithful Friends had ever received from one donor at one time.
As one of the volunteers who visited the school, I want to say that being around such a fine group of kids made me happy and proud. While we hear so much negativity about our test scores, or money problems in the Rowan-Salisbury system, I know that we have the best and brightest students here in Rowan County. Hanford Dole reinforced that fact.
Other schools such as Landis Elementary and the teachers and staff at Knollwood Elementary are saving cans for Faithful Friends also, and Faithful Friends is thankful for everyone’s contributions.
Karen Wenker, school guidance counselor and a Leadership Team advisor and sponsor, pointed out this was a project that almost anyone could help with. As times are hard for families economically, supporting this cause didn’t cost people extra money. The Hanford Dole community was simply asked to bring empty aluminum drink cans that they might have at home.
“Bus-riding boys and girls stuffed their book-bags full and sometimes brought 4 or 5 cans each over a period of several days until they had brought all they had collected since there was not a lot of room on the buses to carry huge bags.”
This project also taught the kids about recycling and being green and the environment, and with Earth Day approaching, “the students saw for themselves how many cans they could collect in one month to keep from going into the county landfill.”
For more information on assisting Faithful Friends Animal Sanctuary go to www.faithfulfriendsnc.org or for can-recycling information, please call Dana Samuelson at 704-200-4772 or e-mail desamuelson @aol.com or Lora Owen 704-636-6946 (after 6 p.m.) or email Lowen@carolina.rr.com.