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C.A.R.E. outreach coordinator Cheri Schumacher shows Summerfield Crossings Elementary School students how volunteers at the Ruskin-based, no-kill shelter communicate the needs of animals in residence with each other. The children chose the shelter as their annual holiday community-service project.
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Summerfield Crossings Elementary School students learn by giving

By LOIS KINDLE

Every year around the holidays, gifted students at Summerfield Elementary School choose and perform a service project as part of their learning experience. Twenty-two students in grades 1 through 5 selected our local Critter Adoption and Rescue Effort no-kill animal shelter as the beneficiary.

“I think it’s really important for gifted kids to get involved in their community,” said their teacher, Laura Elder. “We work a lot on practicing kindness throughout the year, but during the holidays, we want them to put what they learn into practice.

“The first thing I did was show all the children the video on the C.A.R.E. website,” she added. “After seeing it, they became even more passionate about helping the animals. Then I reached out to C.A.R.E. outreach coordinator Cheri Schumacher and arranged shelter tours on Saturdays.”

The children spent the month of November promoting C.A.R.E. on the school’s daily morning show, sharing stories about animal care and highlighting the importance of animal adoption.

Elder placed photos of some of the shelter’s adoptable animals on her classroom door and followed up on Facebook to see if and when they had found permanent homes. She would then report her findings to her students.

“They were so excited every time one of the animals got adopted,” Elder said.

Every Friday, they researched shelters and learned about issues stray animals face throughout the country and also spent hours actively soliciting and collecting donations of food, toys and cleaning products from their families and neighbors. They even got other teachers involved.

That was lots of fun for them, Elder said, but the absolute highlight of the project was getting to tour the shelter, seeing its four-legged beneficiaries and, ultimately, delivering their collection of more than 400 items, including $50 in donations.

“The tours helped them see the impact of their efforts,” Elder said. “They loved it. They’ve already told me they want to do the same project next year.”

“We talked a lot in class about what goes on in a shelter, but it was really neat to get to experience it firsthand,” said 5th grader Eva Estes, adding she and the other students involved could have simply collected supplies; however, seeing the animals waiting to be adopted made it more meaningful. “It’s nice to know that everything we‘re doing is making a difference.”

After touring the C.A.R.E. facility, she said, “I liked learning how they care for each animal. It feels good to know the animals have a happy life even in the shelter.”

Other students agreed. “I thought it was really cool to be able to meet the animals we were collecting things for,” said 2nd grader Roland Estes.

As a teacher, Elder felt especially proud of the way her students latched onto the project.

“Getting to watch my students meet the animals and staff they were working so hard for was heartwarming,” she said. “I know this experience will be something they remember for a lifetime.”

The children’s efforts were greatly appreciated by shelter volunteers and personnel.

“They did an outstanding job learning and sharing what they learned with the rest of the school,” Schumacher said. “I was very impressed about how they handled every aspect of what they did, especially how they built awareness of our C.A.R.E. shelter and what it means to rescue animals and care for them.”

If you’d like to see the C.A.R.E. video that Elder played during the morning show or learn more about this local no-kill shelter and its efforts to build a modern, new shelter for its abandoned, abused and neglected animals, visit www.careshelter.org. Just click on the video link at the bottom of its homepage.

To visit the shelter, become a volunteer or make a donation, call 813-645-2273.

Shown here, students carry more supplies to be donated to C.A.R.E. for the third and final time as part of their special, holiday-related community service project. From left are Addison Crosby, Roland Estes, Layla Daniels, Kelsi Harvey, Jason Cebula, Charlotte Baker, Cooper Bistany and Matthew Engerski.

Erik Bailey, a 2nd-grader in Summerfield Crossings Elementary School’s gifted program, gives an enthusiastic thumbs-up to show his feelings about touring the C.A.R.E. no-kill animal shelter in Ruskin.

Students from Summerfield Crossings Elementary School tour the C.A.R.E. no-kill animal shelter’s isolation room to learn more about the operation of animal rescues.

A C.A.R.E. cattery volunteer Jim Keene introduces an available feline to Summerfield Crossings Elementary School gifted students Cooper Bistany and Addison Baker during a Saturday morning tour of the shelter.

This is the second load of supplies Laura Elder’s class of gifted students from Summerfield Crossings Elementary School collected for the Critter Adoption and Rescue Effort no-kill animal shelter in Ruskin. A third collection brought their total donation to more than 400 items and $50 in donations.

A group of students from Summerfield Crossings Elementary School delivers the first load of donations they and their classmates collected during November as part of an annual holiday community-service project. In the front row, from left, are Roland Estes, Eva Estes, Jason Cebula and Layla Daniels. In the back row are Erik Bailey, Karen Flagg and teacher Laura Elder.

Summerfield Crossings Elementary School 5th-grader Eva Estes visits a C.A.R.E. kitten named Latte, who has since found its forever home.

Summerfield Crossings Elementary School 2nd-grader Erik Bailey, one of Laura Elder’s students, meets and greets one of C.A.R.E.’s adoptable pets during a special shelter tour in November.

Summerfield Crossings Elementary School students Sofia Fabregas, left, and Eva Estes stand in front of the door of their classroom, which they helped decorate with photos of some of C.A.R.E.’s adoptable animals. Her classmates rejoiced every time one of the pets found a permanent home.