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Club Activities
Want some idea suggestions for what your club can do? Look below and find many different projects that will make a difference for animals in your school and community.
Promote Vegetarian/Vegan Food Options at Your School!
The lunch room shouldn't just be for those who choose to eat meat. Make sure your school offers vegetarian and vegan alternatives for those who choose an animal free menu. Set up a meeting with your school administrator to talk with them about making your cafeteria a more vegetarian and vegan friendly place. Start a petition to have more animal friendly options in the lunch room like soy milk, veggie dogs, and free range eggs.
Helpful Hint: Talk about health and nutrition as much as you talk about animal welfare issues. Childhood obesity and early onset diabetes are serious health problems and healthier options means healthier students. Check out The New York Coaltion for Healthy School Lunches, an organization
dedicated to bringing plant based options to schools in New York
State: www.healthylunches.org
Animal Dissection Alternatives
No student should have to dissect an animal if they feel it is ethically wrong. However, their education should not suffer because they do not agree with a classroom activity. There are many computer programs and alternatives to dissection studenst can do that don't hurt a single living creature. Ask your science teacher if the school owns dissection alternative software and if they don't, talk to them about making options available to students. On our animal welfare issues page under animal testing/vivisection we have links to a few places that provide free software to schools that want to give their students humane alternatives. Show your teacher these alternatives and help make them available at your school.
Write an Article for Your Local or School Newspaper
Many students don't have any idea about the suffering animals experience both in their own country and around the world. Write an article for your local or school newspaper that will make your fellow students more aware about animal welfare and cruelty issues. The only way people are going to learn is by getting the facts, and you can help provide those to your community.
Have a Bake Sale
Most people don't know that vegetarian and vegan food is really yummy. There is an incorrect assumption that to eat vegetarian or vegan, one has to give up great taste. Have a bake sale in your cafeteria using all animal friendly ingredients and show the other students that being a vegetarian or vegan does not mean you have sacrifice tasty treats. Go to our links page to find links for tasty vegan recipes.
Donate to your Local Rescue Shelter
Organize a drive within your school to help your local rescue shelter. Most shelters rely on the support they receive from their communities. Contact the shelter and ask them what supplies they need. Collect from students and faculty the supplies the shelter asks for. Set up a date to present these items to the shelter and notify your local paper or school paper in case they want to take pictures and write an article about your efforts. Make sure the shelter you choose has a good reputation and record in terms of caring for their animals and trying to move toward a no kill status.
Advertise to students, faculty and staff. Many faculty and staff will have old blankets and towels they will want to get rid of anyway. Put notes in their mailboxes to let them know about your drive and place a collection box in a central area in your school.
Set Up an Information Booth
Education is the most effective method of gaining more animal welfare advocates. Set up an information booth in a busy area like outside your local market, shopping center, or town square and let people know about some of the issues animals face in the world today. Visit our links page to find places that provide information pamphlets to hand out at your booth. Let your community know what they can do to help. You can also have some vegetarian or vegan goodies for sale and donate the proceeds to the animal welfare charity of your choice.
Note: Before setting up your booth, contact your local town hall to make sure you know where you are and are not allowed to set up an information booth or bake sale.
Invite a Guest Speaker
Contact your local rescue shelter or other animal welfare group and request a speaker to visit your school and speak with your club. Although this is a club activity, hang posters in your school and notify students and faculty that they are welcome to come and listen to your speaker. The more people the better!
Animal Welfare Website
The web is an exciting way to educate the public. Create your own animal welfare website and link it to friends through email or your personal website. Choose a topic you feel particularly strongly about (example: Factory Farming, Vegetarianism/Veganism, Animal Testing etc.) and create a site that talks about the issues involved. Then please send us a link to your website so we can see your creation!
Write a Letter to Your State Representative
Write letters to your state politicians and let them know how you feel about animal welfare issues. Find out what exact problems occur in your state. Most states have issues that include companion animals, farm animals and wildlife. Let them know how you feel about the specific issues that affect your state and community. Make sure when you write to them that you are professional, clear, polite, and that your facts are accurate.
Click here to find out who your state representatives are.
Volunteer at Your Local Rescue Shelter
Rescue shelters depend on their communities to help them care for homeless companion animals. Contact your local rescue shelter and set up a day your club can help by volunteering either as individuals or a group. Make sure the shelter you choose has a good reputation and
record in terms of caring for their animals and trying to move toward a no kill
status.
Click here to find a place to volunteer near you.
Animal Welfare Day
Talk to your school administration about setting up an Animal Welfare/Earth Day to educate students and faculty on issues that affect our planet and its inhabitants. Invite guest speakers from your local rescue or animal welfare group, have student presentations, and have an animal friendly bake sale with vegetarian/vegan goodies.
Collaborate with Other Clubs
Does your school have an environmental club? Or some other club that has similar interests to your own? If so, you may want to collaborate on a project that meets both your needs. For example, if you have an Earth Day, you can plan it with the environmental club. Both clubs will learn about the other clubs issues and you'll have more people to plan with and more people who attend. You may be surprised to find out how much overlap there is between animal welfare issues and environmental issues.
Humane Education
Humane Education is the teaching of respect and compassion for all living beings and the environment. Some states such as New York have laws requiring the teaching of Humane Education but for the most part those laws are ignored. Find out if there are groups in your community that will come to your school and work with school administrators to offer lessons in Humane Education. Check out www.teachhumane.org.
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