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Thursday, June 10, 2004

Teen Collects Funds to Help Animals

By Kathy Louise Schuit
Mountain View Telegraph
    Alysia Lenderman was 2 years old when she first started to understand that dogs and puppies in the animal shelter needed her help.
    At the time, her mother, Vicki Lenderman, worked at a shelter in Las Cruces and Alysia spent many hours walking between the rows of unwanted animals.
    "I would stick my hands through the cages to pet them," she said.
    Now, at age 14, Alysia is counting the pennies she inspired classmates at Edgewood Middle School to donate to help the animals.
    And she has big plans for the future.
    Pennies for Pound Puppies is an idea that came to Alysia while she worked as a volunteer at Albuquerque's Eastside Animal Shelter. She has so far logged 128 hours of volunteer time and is still going strong.
    The pets waiting for adoption often have special needs, she said.
    Some of them— like Cody, the 5-year-old border collie she and her mom recently agreed to foster and then adopted in order to get him medical treatment for severely neglected teeth and old, untreated injuries— can't eat the dry dog food usually supplied at the shelter. They need canned food, Alysia said.
    The shelter also often runs short of other supplies, she said, including pet toys and small blankets that dogs and cats love to burrow in for warmth and security.
    All of it costs money that the animal shelter often doesn't have, she said.
    Just a few months after a family situation required Alysia's transfer from school in Albuquerque to Edgewood, Alysia said she started to get her new classmates involved in raising Pennies for Pound Puppies.
    With the support of the principal, she enlisted the Junior Honor Society as an organizational sponsor. The honor society agreed to make sure Alysia properly distributed the money she collected and also offered incentive prizes to the class earning the most money.
    Three weeks before the start of summer recess, Alysia's fund-raiser was off and running in every class in the school.
    "I brought in all the milk jugs and the signs," Alysia said.
    By the last day of school, Alysia and her fellow students had filled the milk jug coin collectors with more than $720 to help the shelter animals.
    Still riding the wave of her success, Alysia said she now intends to approach members of the East Mountains, Edgewood and Moriarty business communities to support the collection of money for a local spay/neuter assistance program.
    "A lot of people can't afford (to spay or neuter)" Alysia said.
    When she enters Moriarty High School in the fall, Alysia said, she would like to start the classroom collections again, this time to benefit the assistance program and possibly the Estancia Valley Regional Animal Shelter.
    Last week Vicki Lenderman was chosen to replace Pamela Nelson as Edgewood's animal control officer. Nelson will be leaving at the end of the month to join her husband in another state.
    The town is already supporting Alysia's efforts, and the town office is the first donation site in the area.
    Once the project gets under way and some funds are collected, people needing assistance with the expense of spaying or neutering their pets should be able to call Vicki at the town offices to apply for consideration.