The California Scholarship Federation (CSF) group on campus recently decided to serve the community this weekend and volunteer at Fresno’s local animal shelter. The ACT, or the Animal Compassion Team, is located at the Sophia Adoption Center and Training Facility.  They are a non-profit, volunteer based company, and an organization that saves as many homeless pets as possible. The goal of the shelter is, reportedly, to provide wonderful families with adorable pets and build bonds that will last for a lifetime.

CSF volunteered on Sat., March 12, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The club split up into groups during their service times. Each group helped with something different such as cleaning rooms, washing windows, and doing laundry. After helping freshen up the building, they got the opportunity to hang out with the animals, big and small.

One of the groups helped out with cleaning each of the rooms, such as sweeping the floors and wiping the bookshelves. Amanda Grimmius, ’19, who participated in this group, enjoyed helping out the shelter in this way to make a difference.

“I love animals and anything I can do to help them makes me feel good,” Grimmius said. “I get to see all of the little animals and it feels great to know that your helping them in a big way. My favorite part was folding laundry and then going to distribute them to the animals.”

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The ACT organization had been in the minds of all the Animal Compassion Team founders for a long time. They had faced a lot of disapointment and heartbreak, but they keet going. They were passionate for the animals and nothing was going to stop them from saving their lives.

August of 2009, ACT became a non-profit corporation. The organization believes that this decision was a leap of faith, but further assisted them in saving lives efficiently.

The people that work at the shelter are all volunteers. The organization doesn’t pay them, rather they perform their duties out of the passion within their hearts. Katie Applin works for ACT as a volunteer. Applin is one of the board members and is also the volunteer coordinator. She decided to get involved in the shelter because she loves the animals and loves to make a big difference for them.

“I’ve experienced a wide range of emotions from everything,” Applin said. “Its not always easy. There’s heartbreaking parts to it too, but also there a lot of joy and happiness. You also get to meet a lot of amazing people who are really committed to the animals and care about them. You also get a chance to spend time with these animals who love unconditionally even though they haven’t had the best situation beforehand.”

Sophomore Cate Vander Kooi washed windows and washed doorknobs with her shelter group. She loves animals and loves puppies so she decided to join in the fun and help with her friends.

“I really enjoyed working here because its a great way to give back to the community,” Vander Kooi said. “It’s something I love doing so it just fit together perfectly. I really liked playing with the puppies at the end of the day and playing with the bigger dogs.”

ACT has saved over 5,000 animals in the past five years, and continues to save more. For more information about the shelter and the organization, go to the ACT website. They are located at 2789 S Orange Ave in Fresno, CA.

This writer can be contacted via Twitter:  @schultz_kamryn and via Email: Kamryn Schultz.