Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Ironwood — Christmas may have come early for the animals at the HOPE Animal Shelter as the Ironwood sixth graders collected goods to donate to the Ironwood animal shelter.
Shelter staff and one of the shelter's dogs, Gus, visited the sixth graders Friday to thank them for the donations.
“It will all be put to good use … it's stuff that we use on an everyday basis, so it's stuff that's needed,” said HOPE director Randy Kirchhoff.
He said the shelter takes care of roughly 500 cats and dogs each year, meaning it takes a lot of supplies and efforts to keep the shelter operational.
Kirchhoff talked to the students about Gus, a hound found running stray in Ironwood Township roughly six months ago, and the shelter's work.
Almost every student said they had visited the shelter, and many of them indicated they had actually adopted animals from HOPE.
The students also got a chance to ask questions about HOPE and the animals it takes care of.
Sixth-grade teacher Tony Bunt said he had done a fundraiser for HOPE at the holidays when he taught second grade. With the district's character trait for December being caring, Bunt said he talked to his students about what they wanted to do this year.
“They all agreed donating things to the animal shelter, since so many of them have been there (and) adopted animals from there,” Bunt said. “They thought that would be a good idea to do and have HOPE come in.”
He said he was pleased with the amount of donations, and plans to repeat the collection drive next year.
In addition to the donations collected by the sixth graders, Bunt said other students and even adults in the community got involved and donated items.
Anyone interested in donating to HOPE or volunteering can visit the shelter's website, myhopeanimalshelter.org.
