Adam School will kick off its animal ambassador program on March 25, when more than 30 fifth and sixth grade students will pay a visit to the Santa Maria Animal Center to tour the facility, spend time with the shelter’s rabbits, and make dog treats.
The students’ March 25 trip will mark the first of three, which aim to teach the children lessons in animal care, responsibility, and community involvement, according to Maureen Staunton, advisor to the school’s leadership program, K-Kids.
The students’ subsequent trips will include reading to the shelter’s cats and meeting an Animal Control officer on April 1, and exercising the shelter’s dogs in the yard on April 6. The program, which Adam School has hosted for several years, is funded this year by a grant from Target.
This article appears in Mar 16-23, 2017.