Safe Humane Chicago Paper Party

Location: Animal Career Academy

Date: Tuesday, March 19, 2013; 6:30 pm-8:30 pm

This was going to be my second One Brick event and the directions asked us to take a train to Chinatown.  I had never been to that part of the neighborhood, though I had heard a great deal about its colorful shops and the variety of places to eat.  My friend Irina was also doing this project, and so we arrived together at Chinatown with plenty of time to spare.  But as is usually the case, being early does not necessarily guarantee timely arrival and we promptly proceeded to get lost.  In our defense, being Chinatown, the street signs were not in English and the bus we were hoping to take was delayed.  So with some help in directions and a long walk in bitter cold wind, we arrived at our destination 10 minutes late. 

Indeed

We checked-in with Jo Elle, who was the Event Manager and Cathy, the employee from Safe Humane and when we apologized, they told us not to worry and were happy that we could make it there to help.  There were already a lot of people in one of the conference rooms, engrossed in some task and Jo Elle asked if we wouldn't mind helping out in another room.  We were ready to help in any way we could and so we were directed to a smaller room which had two other volunteers besides us.  Our first task was preparing folders that Safe Humane could hand out to people and I was assigned with the unenviable job of inserting a business card in the diagonal slits.  Anyone who has ever done this will sympathize with me.  It is a bit tricky do this with any grace and while the slits hold the card very well once it’s inside, getting it in position is a job and a half.  Fortunately I managed to accomplish that without much damage to the cards and moved on to the next task, which was putting Safe Humane labels on books that they would be distributing to promote the society.  This was followed by a third task where the labels needed to be put on gift bags.  I was beginning to understand the concept of ‘Paper Party’.

It was evident from the posters and the packages that we were preparing that this organization dealt with prevention of animal cruelty, especially to dogs.  According to the project description on One Brick website, “Safe Humane Chicago works to reduce violence by showing people how kindness and compassion towards animals makes our communities safer and more humane. Their programs educate the public about responsible pet ownership and safety; stop the violence associated with dog fighting and animal abuse by providing positive, beneficial activities; and connect pet owners to available resources.”  I asked Cathy to tell us more she said that one of the programs they do is bring at-risk youth and at-risk dogs together, in order to help one another, by teaching the youth the responsibility of caring for an animal.  Another program which I found to be quite brilliant was educating students of Chicago Public High Schools to be ambassadors for Safe Humane in disadvantaged communities; so that they in turn could educate peers and younger children in Chicago Public Elementary Schools about the safe and humane treatment of animals.  This was a creative way of teaching teens since onus is put on them to take their learning’s and ‘pay it forward’.  Cathy said that all the programs they did were without any support from the State and purely based on donations and generosity of others. 

Travel kit for dogs (and humans)

For our next task, we were given dogie travel cans and for a change, asked to remove the original labels and then replace with Safe Humane label.  I personally thought that the travel cans could also serve an excellent purpose for humans.  There was a central container for food, the top could be unscrewed for water and the bottom has a small area for snacks.  Seemed like a perfect thing to take on a picnic or a hike.  Speaking of labels, I loved the concept of their logo, which is a paw print on top of a hand print.  That truly signified what this society was all about.

One Brick promotes social interaction between volunteers and today was no exception.  I chatted with another volunteer Megan, who is a student of Medieval Literature.  My only experience with that era had been dinner at the game show restaurant ‘Medieval Times’ and so I asked her about what study of that entailed and avenues for a career post that.  I also chatted with Jo Elle about her cats and job and then when we were running out of topics, we turned to discussing Wilson.  Over our final two tasks – inserting one pagers and bumper stickers in folders and putting magazines in plastic bags – we exchanged our favorite Wilson stories.  What an amazing character Wilson is, that even in his absence people talk about him.  If that is not a pathway towards leaving ones legacy, I don’t know what is. 

What's the breed

Cathy dropped of a page with a quiz, which had pictures of over a dozen dogs of mixed breeds and asked us to guess which ones had a Pit Bull mix.  Amazingly, the one which seemed least likely was a pit bull mix and it was apparent that one of their missions was to change the perception about that breed.  Before we left, they told us a story about how one of their dogs had just been adopted and the joy in their voice was similar to proud parents announcing their kid’s acceptance in college.  The employees of Safe Humane thanked us profusely and said that without our help it would have taken them days to accomplish all the tasks.  I believe that since, in our room alone we had done 6-7 different tasks; while a much bigger group had been working in another room. 

We had been more than happy to help out and as Irina and I walked back into the brutal wind, I was reminded of something my Mom always used to say when I was growing up.  One of the most reprehensible things, she used to say, was to harm a creature who couldn't speak up for themselves.  Animals look up to humans to protect them and being the dominant species on this planet does come with some responsibilities towards the others who depend on us for kindness and help.  And through my experience with the ‘Pet Therapy’ program with Chicago Cares, I had witnessed firsthand how that kindness shown to animals when we are younger, gets repaid a thousand times over when the human’s need is the most.