Supporting a Sanctuary for Abused and Abandoned Animals

R.A.S.T.A is Permanent Refuge for Abandoned and Abused Animals, focusing on Farm Animal Rescue and Advocacy. This sanctuary is located near Calgary and twenty minutes south of our elementary school.

The Kindergarten children in my class will partner with and support R.A.S.T.A (Rescue and Sanctuary for Threatened Animals) throughout their Kindergarten year. As a class we will visit the sanctuary to observe what animals call the sanctuary home and to determine what materials are needed for the animals to live a positive and loving life.
The children will be guided by the question "Are you big or small in the world?" The children will come to understand that they are "big" in their world because they are capable of making a difference in the lives of these abused and abandoned animals living at the sanctuary.
The children will research the types of animals living at the sanctuary, and become familiar with how each animal fits into our world. We will come to an agreement on one animal that they would like to sponsor as a class for the duration of the school year.
Through donations, fundraising and community involvement, (it is assumed the children will advocate and educate their local school community about R.A.S.T.A through documentation and public speaking) our class will make repeated donations to the sanctuary to help improve the living conditions of the animals there.
A major fundraising project will be dog biscuit baking done by the Kindergarten children and then sold at a school-wide event. We will also collect Canadian Tire money and recyclable bottles and cans as these are both on the R.A.S.T.A wish list.

Update (December 26, 2011)

During the month of November we voted on one animal to sponsor at R.A.S.T.A. Pedro, the dog, received a great deal of votes!

Pedro and Lucie (owner and operator of R.A.S.T.A.) came to our classroom for a visit. During their visit Lucie explained to the children how Pedro came to R.A.S.T.A., what he does on a daily basis, and what our sponsorship money would be put towards. We learned that we would be helping to pay for Pedro's food and medical bills as well as helping to support a positive lifestyle for Pedro.

Pedro was very well behaved around the children! He is loved and adored by many.

Update (December 26, 2011)

During Pedro's visit to our classroom the children noticed that Pedro was wearing a backpack for collecting donations for R.A.S.T.A. The children were extremely excited to share the jar full of Canadian Tire money we had been collecting for R.A.S.T.A.

Our school community has been generously donating Canadian Tire money over the past couple of months to our Kindergarten classroom.

We gave Lucie all of the money we had collected. She was amazed! She said she had never received such a big one time donation before. Lucie uses Canadian Tire money for supplies for the animal sanctuary.

Update (December 26, 2011)

During the month of December the Kindergarten children alongside amazing parent volunteers baked and sold dog biscuits. All proceeds went to R.A.S.T.A.

In total, we sold $300.00 worth of dog biscuits!

Update (May 23, 2012)

Throughout the second portion of our year we regularly reflected on the lifestyles of the animals living at R.A.S.T.A and how their lives were effected.

During our harsh winter months we brainstormed how the animals were coping with the weather elements. We emailed the co-ordinator of R.A.S.T.A. to check in and make sure the animals had all survived (they had!) We also requested she come to our school for another pickup of Canadian Tire money that had been donated. She was overjoyed when she saw the bulging envelope of money awaiting her. When she came for the pickup she brought Benson the dog with her, another R.A.S.T.A. inhabitant.

We also wanted to inform our school community about the animals living at R.A.S.T.A. and how they came to be living there. We created animals out of clay and put them on display in the hallway, along with our poster information about R.A.S.T.A.

We have had a lot of people stop by and read our important information!