Valentine’s coloring contest gives students chance to learn about UCAPS
The Union County Animal Protection Society celebrated Valentine’s Day a little early this month with a love day-themed coloring contest for local students.
UCAPS Board member Kim Phillips said the nonprofit tries to educate area students about responsible pet ownership at least once a year, and the coloring contest was an opportunity to do that.
“We think it’s essential for the children to be responsible pet owners in the future, so we believe instilling a love for pets will be crucial for them,” Phillips explained.
About 40 children across different grade levels at Yocum Elementary, Yocum Primary and Parkers Chapel Elementary School participated in the coloring contest. Nicole McAdams, the art instructor at Yocum Elementary, said her class learned about what UCAPS does in the community before they started coloring.
“We actually read a book called ‘Can I Be Your Dog?’ by Troy Cummings before we started our coloring pages. The book talks about a dog who lives on the street and is mailing letters to different families, asking to be their dog. Eventually, the mail carrier asks the dog to be her dog,” McAdams said in an email. “It was a great way for my students to have a tangible example of what UCAPS helps accomplish in our community.”
Phillips said students were given the option of whether to participate or not. The coloring sheet showed two poodles in puppy love exchanging Valentine’s.
“I have a lot of creative students at Yocum, so they love any chance they get to show off that creativity,” McAdams said. “Most of my students love animals, so they were especially excited when they saw the actual coloring sheet and saw that there were does on there to color!”
McAdams said she explained to her class UCAPS’ basic mission of rescuing stray animals and finding them homes, noting that they too could adopt animals from the nonprofit’s shelter.
“We had a class discussion afterwards about what UCAPS does – takes care of dogs and cats who are lost or don’t have families, they get them feeling better and help them find families,” she said. “I had several students share during our discussion that their family has volunteered at UCAPS before or that they have gotten a pet from there, so that was really fun!”
Four winners of the coloring contest were selected from Yocum/ Yocum Primary and PCES. They each took home a ribbon, a box of chocolates and an “I love UCAPS” bracelet, said Katy Hayes, who also helped organize the contest.
Yocum’s coloring contest winners included Kindergartener Marcely Mendoza-Salmeron in fourth-place; first-grader Maya Mosely in thirdplace; second-grader Ella Maker in second-place; and fourth-grader Mineli Ruiz in first-place.
PCES winners were all first-graders. Payton Frisby took the fourth-place award, Oakleigh Foster took third-place, Jesslyn Meshell won second-place and Emma Palculict was the first-place winner.
Phillips said UCAPS recently received a donation of 200 more books, which she hopes to read to elementary school students this school year. Also on the UCAPS calendar is Furball, scheduled for March 11, for which tickets are currently available.
“It’s one of our biggest fundraisers of the year. We would love for everyone to come and participate. We’ll have music, a silent auction and raffles,” Phillips said. “It’s going to be a good time to come out and support UCAPS and also have a good time.”
Those interested in purchasing tickets for Furball can contact Phillips at 870-820-3590.
For more information about UCAPS, or to get involved, visit ucapsshelter.org or visit the UCAPS Adoption Center or Union County Animal Protection Society pages on Facebook.