photo by: Niamh Coomey

Bridge Street Middle School students who participated in the annual pet drive get a chance to meet two puppies from Ohio County Animal Shelter Tuesday afternoon.

In their third annual pet drive, Bridge Street Middle School students gathered supplies and raised money for the animals at the Ohio Valley Animal Shelter — and celebrated the successful drive with some puppy love.

As a “thank you” for the students’ hard work and their donations, Wendy Neubauer, animal control officer with the Ohio Valley Animal Shelter, held a meet and greet with two of the shelter puppies up for adoption. On Tuesday afternoon, each student from sixth to eighth grade involved with the drive had a chance to interact and take a photo with the puppies.

The students donated cat litter, dry and wet cat and dog food, toys, bones and cleaning supplies like bleach, dish soap and paper towels.

Neubauer said donations like the ones the students gathered help take some of the burden off of local taxpayers to provide everything the animals need. This means the shelter is able to put more of their funds towards providing the best care possible for the animals.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to have all these students donate all this stuff for us because we work off of donations for the animals,” Neubauer said. “It gives us more money to spend on healthcare for them.”

Neubauer said she loves seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces when they get a chance to meet shelter animals. Taking the pets out to meet children, like the Bridge Street students, is mutually beneficial because it also helps with the animals’ socialization when they’re young, she said.

“Be very, very proud of your students because it shows what good deeds the community is doing for these animals,” Neubauer said.

Heather Vickers, an eighth grade ELA teacher at Bridge Street and head of the school’s community outreach program, said the drive was very productive and helped both the shelter and the students.

Vickers said she feels that it is particularly important to give teenagers an opportunity to look beyond themselves and care for the community around them.

“I think that in our workplace it’s important to branch out and see beyond our school,” Vickers said. “I think teenagers are guilty sometimes of being in that self-centered world and so this gives them an opportunity to reach out and be a helpful part of our community. And who doesn’t love a dog?”

The students had to make donations in order to participate in the designated dress-up days for their annual spirit “theme week.” To wear pajamas to school for pajama day, students had to donate a bag of dog food. To wear a hat to school, they had to donate cat litter, and so on.

Though this is the third year of the school’s pet drive, this was the first time students had the opportunity to meet some of the shelter animals on campus in celebration. Vickers said the students were very excited and happy to meet the dogs and have a chance to take photos with them to show their families.

The shelter is always in need of canned and dry food, cat litter and cleaning supplies like bleach and paper towels and donations can be made anytime directly to the shelter.