BLOG: I Know the Hearts of College Park Residents Are Giving

Valentine’s Day 2013 is Thursday of next. Others are pondering the best gift of candy, flowers, balloons, or lingerie to select for a special someone. My friends of the College Park Animal Welfare Committee will also celebrate sweetheart animals and their human friends.

After many months of selling raffle tickets, the committee members will arrange for a winning ticket to be drawn at Ledo’s Restaurant that evening. The prize? A exquisitly hand crafted quilt, generously donated by College Park resident, Linda Gill, in memory of a cat companion. In the end, members of the committee are hoping that ticket sales provide approximately $1,000 of private funding for the lost, stray and abandoned animals of College Park.  

In addition to selling raffle tickets, a very small group of volunteers have been working hard to lend support to our Animal Control Officer, care for animals in a modest city shelter at Davis Hall and at our Petco Partner location in Beltsville, and to shape recommendations to the Mayor and City Council regarding best practices for animal wellbeing. We chat with you at the College Park Woods Community Picnic and at Maryland and College Park Days.

While the charge for our committee was primarily to provide recommendations to City officials, we’ve evolved to a pretty hands on bunch, of necessity. A newly hired ACO has a tall order as a one-person entity for a city of our size. That’s why our hands-on volunteer time of approximately 500 hours, last year alone, made a tremendous difference to the care of the dogs, cats and occasional domestic rabbit who needed our help.

Could you be an individual committed to the welfare of the animals we will assist this year?  If so, contact vcooper@collegeparkmd.gov or your City Council representative. I know the hearts of College Park residents are big and giving!