Students can craft and donate dog toys for a local shelter at a two-day event hosted by the Mays Center at Texas A&M University-San Antonio.
Braid for Barks starts at 2 p.m. Nov. 30 and at 11 a.m Dec. 1 in suite 111 of the Science and Technology Building. Students can RSVP for the event here.
Students will pick up the required materials to make the dog toys at home. There will be an option for students to pick up the materials on either day so they are social distancing and there are no big crowds.
Students will be given materials which include, “strips of felt…rubber bands to tie the felt and the instructions,” said Chloe Martinez, civic engagement coordinator.
Braid for Barks is a part of the Make a Difference Campaign organized by the Mays Center.
“Every Monday I have either a volunteer opportunity for students to do or like a project that they can do to give back, so this event is in that series,” Martinez said.
Martinez has taken over the duties of organizing events for the past month and though she was not the organizer for the past Braid for Barks event, she said that they were very successful and the students did a good job crafting the dog toys.
It’s important for students to attend this event, “because it affects our programming, [there are limited opportunities, and to maintain those connections that we already made with different nonprofits in the area,” Martinez said.
Arturo Corona, a computer science sophomore, said when campus was open and he was on a break he was “usually hanging out with some friends and we’d look on jagsync and see what was going on that day.”
Corona has been to a past Braid for Barks event and described it as, “making braids with cloths and it wasn’t too bad.”
“It was pretty easy braiding… unless you don’t know how to braid then I’d say it wasn’t easy,” Corona said.
He said that last semester they had everything laid out and the instructions were easy to understand.
With the pandemic occurring, dog shelters are receiving a lot of donations and Martinez said that it was difficult to see which shelter was accepting donations. However, the donations from this event will go to the San Antonio Humane society.
“We think it’s a great initiative, we are really grateful and appreciative of the students coming together to provide these items for our sheltered pets, so we just think it’s an awesome idea and we’re sure that our pets are going to definitely love them,” said Lucia Almanza, PR associate for the Humane Society.
Almanza encourages students and the people of the San Antonio community to visit their website because there are a lot of animals that need loving homes this season.
The San Antonio Humane Society is having adoption specials later in December to encourage the community to adopt a new friend.
For more information about this event, contact Martinez at cmartinez1@tamusa.edu.
