Wednesday's Internet Edition, August 27, 2008.
seeking participants
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| HUTS FOR MUTTS FOUNDER – Marion Stanford of Huts for Mutts is pictured with Jamie Jones, who was visiting Hamilton last week. Jones along with Julie Oglesby founded the organization five years ago when they were both Hamilton High School students because they were concerned with the number of homeless dogs that were being euthanized each year in Hamilton. There were 320 animals euthanized in 2003; 236 in 2004; 86 in 2005; 35 in 2006 and 58 in 2007. The group, which also serves Coryell County, is striving to bring the “kill rate” to zero. They brought low cost spay/neuter for dogs and cats to Hamilton and offer a subsidy to those in the community who are on low/fixed incomes. The organization has also greatly improved the dog pens at their site since opening their doors. There is only one paid employee at Huts for Mutts, the rest of the workers are volunteers. For more information, to volunteer or to inquire about adopting a dog, call 254-386-5272. |
We all want to live in a community in which we are proud of it, but it takes people willing to learn more about their town and to volunteer to put out some effort to make it a great place to live. It is easy to say, “Why doesn’t somebody do this or that?” but that person could be you who steps up to the plate in often just a small way to accomplish great things.
Everyone is busy these days, and we want to in-volve “busy” people in this program, because it is often said that if you want to get something done, ask a busy person - they are the ones who accomplish the most! We also want those people who are in-terested in the community, but don’t really know as much about it and would like to meet people and find out who and where to go to make things happen here.
The Leadership Hamil-ton time commitment for classes, which involve tours, field trips, pro-grams, presentations, and activities, is meeting once a month on the third Tuesday of the month from October through April. There will be a one day retreat at Glen Lake Camp on Sept. 20, and graduation will be held May 26. There will be a get-acquainted function in late August. The class will also have some pro-ject work outside of class, so it is not a huge time commitment. Many pre-vious class members claim that they thought the time commitment would be too much, but after they got it the class, they enjoyed it so much that they were really glad they made the choice to join.
Applications are avail-able from Shirley Gerald at the Texas AgriLife Ex-tension office, Jane Crouch at the EDC/Chamber of Com-merce office, or the Ham-ilton Herald News. They are due by July 21. Class cost is $250, but there are scholarships available. If you have any questions, please contact Shirley Ge-rald at 386-3919 or any previous Leadership Ham-ilton graduates.