January 2022 found me desperate for good news so I’d signed up for Good News Network! One of their weekly articles included:
Having grown up with many furry siblings, I've always been a staunch supporter of my local animal shelter. I'd call myself a dog person but I've also, many a time, sat on a closed toilet at two in the morning with my feet on the edge of the tub so I can bottle feed one kitten without the others climbing up my legs (those of you who've fostered abandoned kittens know EXACTLY what I'm talking about).
So when I read what this amazing woman did, I considered it kismet that I'd also just accidentally taught TikTok's AI I'm a sucker for animal shelter posts. I thought with hesitant excitement, "Why can't we do this everywhere?" and began leaving comments on every shelter post asking if they wanted to participate in a wild concept.
The key goal - help the pets at zero cost to the shelters or the schools.
I knew both of them were trying desperately to do too much with too little and didn't want this project to be a strain on any of them. But...what an opportunity for the pets! I’m a mom with a full-time job but I could do the footwork and printing/shipping costs couldn't be that bad.
In the Spring 2022 I began campaigning for enrollment in our very first event. With no references, history, or credibility, it was difficult to get confirmations, but I found that most people who posted did reply. They were also very, very desperate because it was about this time that folks were returning to work during COVID and giving up their pandemic buddies. In the end, it consisted of just two schools, three teachers, three shelters. We created 59 pieces of art! When I picked up the art from the schools, the teachers each had a student deliver them to me by hand at the front office. Every single student who came to me asked the same question, "Are there more?". It gave me goosebumps and I knew I'd be doing it again.
In Fall 2022 I leaned into enrollment for our second event. It was up to four teachers, four shelters completing art for 117 pets/students. It was this event that I realized how much I cherished working with the kids. Around every corner there was a school loaded with eager, loving children who were just as passionate about animals as I was. Each and every time, they put all their heart into the art in an effort to save them.
The project went from saving the animals to doing that AND teaching the kids that they can affect the real world, even now...especially now.
Because of their spirit, they could make better art than I could!
In December 2022, Maury County Animal Shelter took their art to the local TV station where Larissa Wohl crated a story on Hearts of Gold. She posted the video on YouTube (see the link on our homepage) and that was all the credibility I needed.
The Spring 2023 event changed everything. I took my new credibility and cold-called (via email) the principals of three other schools, only one of which immediately joined our cause. Another did not answer and the last wanted to meet in person. I was extremely nervous but I wanted this so badly, I agreed to meet and brought some examples my daughter had made. At the end of the meeting, he sat back in his chair, looked at me very seriously and, rubbing his chin, said, "I…(dramatic pause)…LOVE this idea. Why don't we have the whole school do it." It wasn't a question and I tried not to get excited or panic for that matter. He said he'd talk to them and let me know. Two weeks later, the fourth school gave me the thumbs up and now our third event had gone from 156 to 628 kids.
Six hundred and twenty-eight.
I told the principal, I'll get the pets and meant it. At the same time, I had no idea how I’d possibly get that many pets. However, I happened to have just made good friends with @NoMoreSadKitties on TikTok. Without her, I would have been hard pressed to meet the demand but we did it! It took a while for the kids to believe they were working with real dogs, cats, bunnies, and lizards. When it set in, some of them cried which broke my heart. It became part of the school’s STEAM program and that same teacher asked right away to do it again in October. My loving husband set his genius mind to helping me, lending me all the support I could ask for. My daughter became our spokeswoman at school and, TADA the entire project became a family effort.
During the course of our work this round, I encountered a classroom of kiddos who are and always will be my heroes. With that many pets, there were bound to be some that didn't get art but that just wouldn’t do. This classroom had already and repeatedly asked me for more and they came through not once, not twice, but three times to ensure no animals fell through the cracks. I HAD to thank them in-person so their teacher arranged an opportunity for me to meet them. We spent thirty amazing minutes chatting about the project, exchanging pet stories, and eating cupcakes. I hadn’t a clue on how rewarding this would be until that moment.
Sitting in the silence of my car afterward, I thought to myself, "I wanna do this forever."
Each event, when I deliver the pamphlets to have art made, they come with an equal number of cute animal stickers that the kids get to keep. But I knew from the beginning that shouldn’t be the end. They need to see their impact so, when I receive the art back, I carefully track which classroom they come from and make videos thanking the kids, sending the links to the appropriate teacher. Is that enough? No! I needed something from the shelters. I work closely with them to gather feedback about adoptions, pictures of the art with the pets (and sometimes even their adopters), and efforts surrounding the art. All of that goes to the teachers who then turn around and show their kids.
The feedback from the teachers was incredible. They started leaving comments about the benefits of this program that I’d never even thought of. Some kids were even using it to deal with home/school stress.
I couldn’t imagine not doing this again and again and again.
In August of 2023, I worked to trademark our brand (thank you Danis and Evan for that very good piece of advice). While trying to prove to the state that we were a valid applicant, this website was born and has grown ever since.
This brings us to Fall of 2023. Six months earlier, my mother had clipped an excerpt from a magazine she was subscribed to called Best Friends Animal Sanctuary and said, “These are your people.” The more I found out about Best Friends, the more I wanted to support them. But up until now, I didn’t really have anything solid to give them as an introduction. The website changed all that though and my friend Josh finished off the coincidence by telling me about his recent trip to volunteer there. So, I contacted them and they agreed to let us artify (spell check says this isn’t a word but I think it should be so I’m leaving it) some of their pets. This time I reached out to the principals of all of the elementary schools within 10 minutes of my house - a surprising amount really - and eight schools, fifteen teachers, and three weeks later, we had 750 pieces of art stacked on our table. It wasn’t just dogs and cats this time but pigs, horses, goats, birds, chinchillas, and even a turtle. Check out this article they published in their magazine:
Kids create works of heart to find pets homes | Best Friends Animal Society - Save Them All
This event included working with my first teacher who had moved out of district. A challenge but, I found, something I could overcome with a little extra planning. Words like “database” and “5013c” started flying around. The Facebook page went live and we implemented an escalated timeline.
Best Friends shipped to us stickers of their own to thank the kids. I was expecting the cutsie little dog and cat stickers I use but no, they were official Best Friends Animal Sanctuary volunteer decals!
Again, I was asked to visit one of the classrooms and I jumped at the chance! I hand-delivered these babies to the kiddos and you should have seen their faces.
These weren’t stickers, they weren’t decals. They were badges and their little eyes shone with pride.
That summer, we hosted our first Hearts of Gold Pets summer camp edition with Camp Yougottawanna. They asked me to come on site for the event and I was happy to. They didn’t know exactly how many kids were going to be interested so set me up in a room with about 20 chairs and then opened the doors. A herd of children came running into the room, leaping tables and chairs and they just kept coming. Staff had to scavenge for chairs twice and thought they’d have a second event in the afternoon. I’ve been asked to come back next summer!
Then the emails started rolling in…
The article in Best Friend’s magazine had indeed gotten our name out there. Some were teachers who wanted to participate. A few were shelters. But most…most were folks who wanted to start one of their own. In Arizona. In Colorado and Oregon. In Florida., North Carolina, California. In England! It was inspiring. I offered advice freely and asked only that they let me know how things went. I CANNOT WAIT to hear back from them!
It’s October now and we’re gearing up for the Fall 2024 event. It’ll likely be a small event but, logistically, that’s ok because I’m working with teachers all over the USA for the very first time.. I can ramp it back up in the Spring next year
Every time I work a Hearts of Gold Pets project, I’m filled with a sense of things getting better. I learn on an almost spiritual level that we are not alone. If we all cared as much as these kids, imagine how the world would be! Humans helping each other and the beings we share this planet with. Isn’t that what it should be about?
