6A the university daily kansan
news
monday,november 3,2003
Students make difference for the Lawrence homeless
Amanda Kim Stairrett
astairrett@kansan.com
astairrett writer
Kansan staff writer
A man with a limp and a cane rummaged though a pile of socks and gloves.
"Clean socks would be so nice,"he said with a smile as a volunteer handed him a pair of white tube socks.
Graduate students in the University of Kansas' school of social welfare were at the Community Drop-In Center, 214 W. 10th St., Saturday to distribute toiletries, clothing and food to Lawrence's homeless.
Barbara Hogue, a volunteer at the center, said visitors to the center had been looking forward to the giveaway.
"They were excited," she said. "It is a huge thing for them."
Six graduate students and three junior high students from Lawrence were participating in a nationwide Make A Difference Day.
Make A Difference Day is an
Lauren MacPherson, Wichita graduate student, said she chose to do this project because she wanted to help the community's homeless population.
annual event created by USA WEEKEND Magazine that takes place on the fourth Saturday of every October. Because of fall break, the graduate students decided to make a difference a week later.
"I wanted to do something that would benefit people in a direct way," she said.
Hogue said the day was special to Lawrence's homeless because they had a choice in what they got.
"They got to oooh and aaah over the personal products," she said. "It is more empowering for self esteem."
MacPherson said she saw one woman comparing facial products to see which was best. Items such as razors and shampoo went first.
Hogue said more than 100 people came to the event. Eighty percent of them were homeless, while the rest were in need.
Area businesses, such as HyVee, Dillons, Target and WalMart, donated items such as gift certificates, phone cards and plastic grocery sacks. Graduate students used the gift certificates to purchase socks and gloves. Seventy pairs of gloves and 155 pairs of socks were bought for the event.
Kara Hansen/Kansan
Yellow Sub, Einstein Brothers Bagels, Wheatfields Bakery and Great Harvest Bread Company donated food for the volunteers.
The graduate students involved with the project intern at a Lawrence school. Each school was assigned to collect items for the giveaway.
Central Junior High School held a drive to collect toiletry items.
Kelsey Golden, Central Junior High student, came to the center to volunteer.
"I've never done anything like
Marcella Blebins, Lawrence resident, sorted through hygiene products at the Community Drop-In Center, 214 W. 10th St. Saturday afternoon. Graduate students in the school of social welfare participated in Make a Difference Day at the center. More than 100 people attended the event.
this and I wanted to help," she said.
The help did not stop after the event though. The graduate students took extra supplies to local organizations. The sandwiches and breads were taken to The Salvation Army, the canned food items were donated to the
center, children's socks and diapers were given to Women's Transitional Care Services and the extra hair care products were donated to The Shelter Incorporated, a home for teenage girls.
Interns in the graduate school
of social welfare participate in Make a Difference Day annually. According to USA WEEKEND Magazine, three million people volunteered for Make a Difference Day in 2002.
-Edited by Ashley Marriott
CATS: Health makes owners difficult to locate
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
awareness and money to combat animal abuse.
While the weather holds, the group shows footage of meat packing plants on a portable television at Eighth and Massachusetts streets every Friday between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Franklin said responses were good, though the group has had the occasional insult — and hamburger — tossed its way.
When the group decided to try to relocate the campus cats, it was the first time it had attempted anything of the sort.
"This is our first real big project like this," Franklin said. "We help out when we can."
AOK decided to trap the cats, have them spayed or neutered, then adopted.
To minimize the rabies risk, AOK members used cage-style traps covered over with blankets to disguise them and baited with strong-smelling sardines.
"Spaying and neutering is really the only answer," Carman said. "But it's a bad solution to a really bad problem."
Last Wednesday night Carman led AOK members in their first night of cat trapping.
next morning with Taylor's four black males and one gray female.
With cool evening air stinking of fish, AOK members watched from 30 feet away as each cat entered one of the three traps.
Over the next week they returned almost every night and ended up with 13 cats, nine adults and four kittens.
"I think we've gotten as many as we're going to catch," Franklin said on Wednesday, a few hours before finding the fourth kitten.
That was their most successful night; they drove to the vet the
Though trapping the cats proved to be tricky, the harder part was finding people who were willing to take in feral animals.
After weeks of searching, AOK received help from two sources.
The first was the Lawrence Humane Society, which put them in touch with prospective adopters. The second was Eudora veterinarian Mickey Jenks, who had agreed to spay or neuter the cats and give them their rabies shots.
A cat rested next the lean-to constructed by power plant workers the evening of Sept.16, Thirteen cats were recently treated and relocated throughout the county.
HELP FOR THE CATS
Jenks found homes for four of the cats with her sister Kim Taylor, three others with friends, and finally one of the kittens at her own farm.
Ideally, the cats would all be kept together because they lived in a big group at the University. But given the limited resources, the best that could be done was to keep together the four cats at Taylor's house, who were the same age and were probably littermates.
"A lot of people aren't in favor of taking in feral cats because you're taking a risk," Jenks said.
Animal Outreach of Kansas www.animaloutreachofkansas.org or e-mail
Jenks said they were afraid of rabies, which Midge Grinstead, the executive director of the Lawrence Humane Society, said
KitLeffler/Kansan
KlCats@animaloutreachofkansas.org
Students can also visit or call
The Lawrence Humane Society
1805 E. 19th St.
843-6835
was a problem in this area.
Jenks has been taking in cats for years and said that while 99 percent of her cats were feral, she has never had to deal with rabies.
Carman said that she wished all of the cats could return to their home in the powerhouse instead of having to be relocated.
"What we're doing isn't the greatest situation," she said. "We'd like to bring them back here, but their territory is being demolished and they'd either wind up being killed or disbanded."
Grinstead agreed that they couldn't stay, but said that spaying and neutering cats and then releasing them offered the cats a poor quality of life.
She said that she found five to 10 dead feral cats a week that had been hit by cars or poisoned.
"We find some horrible things in dumpsters all the time, and some of them are cats," she said.
Grinstead said that she would
support AOK in finding homes for the feral cats, which live in several spots on campus.
Crinstead offered $40-per-cat vouchers to help defray the $67-per-cat expense of spaying and neutering.
Instead, Franklin and her sister Emily are working to put together a task force that they
Having already spent about $600 in AOK funds to take care of the 13 cats from the powerhouse, Franklin said that the organization could not afford to help all of the cats on campus by itself.
said they want to bring KU stuents together to help the cats
if they register with the University, they can receive funds from Student Senate, but first they'd need a professor to sponsor them.
For right now, Julia Franklin is just glad to be almost done relocating the powerhouse cats.
Her classes have forced her to be on the go during the day, but the cats' nocturnal habits have kept her and other AOK members up all night.
"My sleeping schedule is so out of whack," she said.
The cats, too, seemed glad to be past the relocation.
Jenks and Taylor said that the cats they were taking care of had been friendly to them, if still a little cautious.
Jenks nor Taylor has named the cats yet.
"Once you name them, then you get attached," she said. "I hope they stay though. They'll have a nice home if they stay."
- Robert Perkins can be reached at rperkins@kansan.com
Edited by Abby Sidesinger
News. Now.
839 MASSACHUSETTS LAWRENCE KS 66044