Add community service to your Best In Show Pet Treat sale by asking your customers to purchase an extra bag of treats as a donation to a local humane society, rescue group, or animal sanctuary!  It’s easy.  Just use the designated column on the order form, ask you customers to order a bag of treats to donate, and at the end your sale your club members can have fun delivering the donated treats.

Looking for a local animal group that would welcome your donation?  Humane societies and rescue groups always welcome donations, but there are others as well.  Did you know that there are animal sanctuary organizations that offer foster care for military pets while their owners are deployed?   The Today Show just featured Canine Corps, a group in PA that offers care and sanctuary for the pets of deployed military personnel.  Check your local listings there may be a military pet foster group in your area.  They’d welcome a donation of pet treats, and it would give your customers a chance to support 4-H and our troops at the same time.

Send us your ideas on other great organizations that would benefit from pet treat donations and we’ll post them.

As often as possible, we try to go out and speak directly with 4-H kids, their families, and volunteers.   Our goal is to share information about our great pet treats for 4-H fundraising, as we try to learn about the clubs and their fundraising needs and experiences.  This month we had the distinct pleasure of visiting with youth at the Kentucky State 4-H Horse Show, the National Junior Swine Spectacular and the American Dairy Goat Association National Show all here in Louisville, Kentucky.  We were so impressed with the quality of kids involved with all three of these programs.  It was great to see a wide variety of families sitting in groups talking with their kids while they tended their respective animals.  There was no television, no video games or music – just good conversation, hard working kids, and an occasional participant ”sacked out” in a cot or stadium chair.   As we talked with group after group, we couldn’t help but notice how well so many of these young people were able to talk with us.  They were well mannered, articulate and confident in a way that is unusual these days.   Frankly, we were struck by the way they presented themselves.  Clearly, 4-H youth development and these families have a great deal to be proud of.   We walked away knowing that we were talking with the leaders of tomorrow. 

We just know some great things will come out of these donations.  Your group could donate to your county’s humane society or animal shelter, the local police K-9 unit, a local search and rescue team, or even a horse rescue group.

Here in Louisville, we had one group donate treats to the Louisville Metro Police K-9 Unit.  As a thank you, LMP sent a couple of handlers and dogs to a meeting where they did a live demonstration of how they work with the dogs and talked about how they train the dogs.  The kids felt so proud of their community service and learned a great deal about the dogs, and the group leader hosted one of the best meetings of the year!

You may want to be sure and take a camera when treats are delivered to the animals as these photos are showing up in community newspapers all over.  This kind of publicity is great for the kids, the animal group, and 4-H in your area.