The formation of humane education clubs is the best means of finding a solution to the animal abuse and pet overpopulation problems we have.  Humane Education being the obvious focus of the clubs efforts and learning, so they will be able to teach others.   Here, you will  find ideas for events that will help your club increase its visibility and inform the community through flyers, etc.

CREATIVITY, INTELLECT, IMAGINATION AND COMPASSION.

http://www.21stcenturycares.org/gottahavefriends.htm   Good to have a 'Friends of Animals' volunteer group

http://www.21stcenturycares.org/formingclubs.htm (Help in forming school Humane Education clubs)

We also want to help you garner additional memberships from various groups of students.  We want the group to become an enjoyable social circle of all sorts of students.   By having a set membership of only animal lovers, your group will not have the diversity it needs to share the information it gains with those who really need to hear it.  Below is a short list of ideas that have been successful in other efforts:

§          Educate the community on how to accomplish this (you must EDUCATE your members first!)   This truly helps you organize the important issues as well as the need to be accurate in presenting them to others.  Email Randy Warner at mailto:21stcares@citilink.net for help.

§          Help with community projects – This helps bring notoriety to your organization so that you can successfully approach the community when you need assistance or donations.

        To garner membership from a variety of different students, ask a computer student to build the website,  ask a business student to develop a business plan, some sports figures to help excercize dogs while practicing afterschool.  Be creative and then invite them to become members.   make them feel welcome and show the need for everyone to have the proper information.

§          Show the importance of voting – This shows how apathy allows your representatives to vote on issues that truly affect you and your lives in many ways.  Every ''problem'' we have in this country is basically attributed to apathy in one form or another.

§          Have an active, informative website – This not only allows you to communicate your message and goals to others, but also helps bring in a other students that might not otherwise consider joining (i.e., students from computer class).  On this website, show your club’s goals, event dates and locations, success stories, needs, the problems of the community, and how each resident can help in the solutions. (Focus on what people can do without giving money.) Everyone can learn a little about website design..  Make sure they follow through with adding your site to some major search engines, animal related chat rooms, and posting forums (i.e. Yahoo! Groups) to inform others.

§          Do off property adoptions – Negotiate with the local dog pound to take some of their adoptable animals, who will almost certainly face death, to a community location such as a park and give them a chance for the residents to see what wonderful animals are available and otherwise would be lost to ignorance.  This takes some considerable planning and effort, but brings unbelievable results and media attention to your club.

       http://www.21stcenturycares.org/stpatsparade.htm

§          Have a booth at your county fair – This takes a lot of organization to man the booth for all the hours of the event.  People will learn about you, they'll learn how to help their pets.  They may wish to join, they may donate, and they may adopt a pet that is there. Have plenty of informational fliers and literature to pass out on a variety of topics.

§          VOTE!!! – The single most likely reason we see so much distain and mistrust for elected officials is a lack of involvement on the part of the voters.  An average of 33% of eligible voters actually vote.  If you wish to make a difference in how your community, state, or federal government handles issues such as animal overpopulation, taxes and all issues that affect your lives, you MUST VOTE!  www.21stcenturycares.org/potential.htm

§          Ideas for fundraisers – These take some time and effort in planning, but are fun and worthwhile!

o     Have students with pets bring their dogs to the local pet food or supply store during Christmas.  The dogs can wear cute Santa or reindeer garb.  For $5 per photo, the public can take pictures of their children with the “Santa dog” or the “reindeer dog”.   Have a Polaroid camera and offer to take and sell the pictures for $5 each.  Many people will just choose to give a donation.  (This can also be done with a “pumpkin dog” at Halloween, an “Easter Bunny dog” at Easter, a “Pilgrim dog” at Thanksgiving, and many others.

o     A community in New Mexico found a movie theater that had little business during the day and convinced them to allow an event they called CANNES FOR CANINES after the Cannes Film Festival.  Dogs accompanied their humans for a viewing of Rin Tin Tin or Lassie and all proceeds benefited the animals.  see www.21stcenturycares.org/cannes.htm for full details of fundraiser.

o     Hold a doggy walk-a-thon for the local community.  Proceeds to benefit a local animal organization (i.e., local Humane Society) and your club.  Be creative in publicizing this.  For example, the school track team could run dogs during the week prior with signs on the dogs to advertise.   Bring a few dogs that need homes, in hopes they might get adopted.  Get the track team and others to consider joining.  This is done by getting others involved and making your events and follow-up parties FUN.  Make sure that you tell your members that learning the correct care for animals is only part of the goals, that they need to speak out when they see something questionable or wrong..  Otherwise your knowledge is only helpful when the pet is YOURS.  That is just too limiting for those poor animals that are suffering at the hands of ignorance.

For Full Text and Pictoral or this article  www.21stcenturycares.org/formingclubs.htm   Additional suggestions and ideas can be viewed at www.21stcenturycares.org/projsug.htm