With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I would like to suggest a fun, very rewarding way to celebrate with friends and loved ones while helping out a local animal shelter and the creatures in its care. It’s a great time to help those in need, whatever your favorite cause!
Several years ago, during the Christmas season, I very much wanted to help the animals in my community but didn’t have the time to volunteer or the money to donate a significant amount. I started to notice all the fundraisers and good deeds sponsored by human service organizations – “toys for tots,” coats for the homeless, etc. – and finally it came to me. Maybe I could start my own mini-campaign to help animals. I visited the websites of a few local animal shelters and discovered that most have online “wish lists” of supplies they need.
I threw my first animal shelter supply party six years ago during December, and it has become an annual tradition. All my guests feel so good about contributing to the well being of animals that friends and neighbors frequently ask me about it early in the year to be sure I’m planning to throw another one during the holiday season!
One year I was ill during the winter holiday season so I postponed the party until Valentine’s Day. The theme for the Valentine’s party was giving back to those feathered and furry fellow beings who give so much unconditional love to us. The animals in my life have always been my biggest sweethearts!
Regardless of the holiday, these parties are always a huge success and we collect a van full of supplies. Everyone can find something to contribute — whether it’s a few bags of treats, a lightly used leash or collar, toys for shelter residents, or a stack of clean towels, sheets, or blankets. (Used linens are always needed by shelters; just please make sure they are clean and in good shape).
I prefer that my guests spend money on items for the animals, so I furnish snacks and drinks rather than making the party a potluck. I always have magazine articles on hand so my guests can read up on animal issues if they like. At the top of every invitation, which includes a copy of the animal shelter wish list for the occasion, is one of my favorite quotations:
“Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to man. Just as man wants happiness and fears pain, just as man wants to live and not die, so do other creatures.” – The Dalai Lama
You can make any animal shelter or rescue organization the beneficiary of your party — perhaps choosing one that focuses on an animal species or breed you particularly love. If you would like to tour the shelter or organization when you drop the supplies off, call in advance to schedule your visit.
The shelter of my choice is San Francisco Animal Care & Control. For years I avoided walking through the kennels as I feared I would fall apart when seeing the animals “behind bars.” Let me tell you, the shelter is not a sad, depressing place to visit! To me this is a “feel-good” place because the creatures are cared for so well.
SF/ACC is an “open-door” rather than selective intake shelter. This means they accept any and all animals, birds, reptiles, fish, etc. surrendered to their care — from circus bears (yes, seriously) to goldfish left in a bowl on a street corner! Animals are not “put to sleep” at SF/ACC unless they are too ill to be cured by treatment or too aggressive to respond to training.
In addition to the staff at the shelter, there are many volunteers who see to it that the animals receive attention and love. The kennels and cages are kept clean and well stocked with beds and toys. Even the rabbits are taken to an (enclosed) park to roam around and play. Though there is a veterinarian on staff, sick and injured animals receive medical care elsewhere when necessary.
I am so glad that my family, my friends, and I can make a difference in the lives of non-human sweethearts in our communities, especially on Valentine’s Day, by throwing fun parties for animal shelters. It’s a wonderful way to celebrate LOVE by helping the living beings who love us humans so freely and unconditionally.
Farideh “Freddi” Alagheband is a Bay Area speech therapist whose main passions are animal rights, environmental activism, and…going for long walks with her best friend, Lola the Lab. Freddi is completing her first children’s book, which encourages young people to respect animals and nature.
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