Wildwood Elementary students raised enough money to send seven sewing machines to women in India last month.
This month, with the spirit of Valentine’s Day, they will give back to furrier friends.
From the beginning of February to Feb. 12, students are collecting pet food to present to Seattle Humane Society representatives at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 13.
“We want the children to be as successful as possible but success is not just about reading and math, it’s how we get along with others,” said Ta Sukovaty, the assembly coordinator and fourth grade teacher at Wildwood Elementary.
Teachers teach Second Step Skills for Social and Academic Success throughout the year. This pet food drive, Sukovaty said, will reinforce students’ skills in empathy and communication – two of the skills in the program.
Seattle Humane Society Coordinator Gina Tzodikov wrote in a letter that in 1983 the organization noticed a pattern of senior citizens giving up their pets for adoption because they couldn’t afford to keep them.
“Studies have show that the companionship of a pet can greatly improve the quality of life for people living with disabilities, illness or little social contact,” Tzodikov wrote. “For our clients, receiving a monthly supply of pet food enables them to keep their pets while spending their limited resources on food and other living expenses for themselves.”
The Seattle Humane Society now helps senior citizens and the homeless in more than 30 senior centers and food banks by delivering pet food to their homes from a pet food bank.
The donations from Wildwood Elementary and the rest of the school district will help that cause.
Sukovaty said she’s been guilty of seeing a panhandler with a pet and wondering why they would choose to keep the dog, given the added expense of feeding it.
“But if they don’t have family to help them, then that’s the only love they can get back,” she said. “Pet’s are like family to people. It is companionship and company when they’re all alone.”
Seattle Humane Society volunteers deliver more than 16,000 pounds of pet food on a monthly basis to more than 1,800 pets and they welcome any help they can get.
“The Pet Food Bank truly makes the difference for low-income seniors, people disabled by AIDS, and those battling cancer,” Tzodikov wrote. “For them, it is the difference between keeping their pets and having to give them up.”
Sukovaty figures if everyone in the school donated one pet food item, it would bring in roughly 500 cans or bags. If every student of the 21,000 in the school district donated, the influence could be profound.
“There’s a way, if everybody chips in, we can make a big impact,” Sukovaty said.
As of Wednesday, one mother had individually donated 20 bags of cat food.
And while Wildwood doesn’t yet have a goal for the donations, Sukovaty admits that it might be hard for some of the families.
Wildwood is a Title I school, meaning that 100 percent of students eat free and reduced lunches.
However, the top class from the lower and upper grades that brings in the most donations will get a pizza party.
The Seattle Humane Society is in need of canned, wet or dry food, with a specific need for dry cat food. Members of the community can drop their donations at Wildwood’s main office or students can bring the food with them to school and drop it off in their classroom. The Seattle Humane Society is also accepting checks, not cash, made out to the Seattle Humane Society, which will be presented during the Wildwood assembly.
