Northwestern students volunteering in the community don’t just do good deeds for humans. Now they can help the animal population of Evanston as well.
Oasis, a student volunteer organization on campus, began working with the Evanston Animal Shelter’s volunteer group Community Animal Rescue Effort on Monday evening with an orientation session attended by seven students. The shelter is one of two new sites available for Oasis volunteers, along with Greenwood Care, a psychiatric rehabilitation center for adults.
“All of the sites have their own personalities,” said Amina Merchant, a Speech senior and Oasis president.
Other Oasis sites give students the opportunity to tutor disadvantaged youth, set up and prepare meals at soup kitchens and teach English as a second language. The shelter is the group’s first site to deal with animals.
“It’s really exciting because I don’t think there are any other volunteer opportunities on campus where people can work with animals,” Merchant said.
After watching an instructional video about feeding animals, cleaning cages and doing other daily maintenance, students broke into two groups: those interested in working with cats and those who wanted to work with dogs.
CARE volunteer trainers introduced the students to some of the duties they will perform during their three-hour shifts.
Although cleaning cages of animal wastes is not glamorous, it is an important part of the volunteers’ duties, said trainer Roger Pomerance.
“Nobody is pretentious here,” Pomerance said. “We’re all here for the animals.”
After going over the dirty work, students had the opportunity to interact with the cats and dogs.
Volunteer Polly Stilp, a writing professor at Kendall College, said falling in love with the animals was an “occupational hazard” of being a volunteer. She declined to say how many animals she has adopted from the shelter.
Students shared a similar motivation for volunteering with CARE — they all have pets at home.
Education junior Jennifer Johnson said she likes animals and has a cat at home named Willie.
“He’s Willie the Wildcat,” she said jokingly. “But we had him before I decided to come to Northwestern.”
Students must go through two more training sessions before beginning their volunteer work, probably during Winter Quarter, said site leaders Kate Solinger and Liz Kim, both Weinberg freshmen.
Socializing with the animals is important in keeping up the shelter’s high adoption rate, which is usually at about 90 percent.
“The more you work with a dog (or cat) at the shelter, the more adoptable the animal is,” CARE president Linda Gelb said in the video.
CARE operates the shelter at 2310 Oakton St., the only one in Evanston, with funds from adoption fees and donations while Evanston owns and maintains the building. CARE’s veterinary bills amount to about $40,000 a year, Pomerance said.
Oasis welcomes new members at any time during the year and holds quarterly meetings.
“All you need is a willingness to volunteer,” Merchant said. “It’s an enriching experience.”
