Over the past 12 months, a North Jersey Lady Scout has efficiently turned her ardour for animals right into a statewide effort to advocate for the significance of fostering pets.
Sophia Gillen, of Mountain Lakes, has been engaged on her gold award undertaking, probably the most prestigious award a Lady Scout can obtain, for simply over a 12 months. The undertaking known as “Phenomenal Foster Pets” and is made up of varied elements together with a proclamation from the governor and a enjoyable patch to encourage advocacy for fostering pets.
Gillen has been keen about animals for so long as she will keep in mind and mentioned that she has at all times needed to attempt to assist out in any approach that she may.
Right this moment, at 16 years previous, she works primarily with the Bloomingdale Regional Animal Shelter Society (BASS) as a weekend kennel attendant. She is a pupil at Mountain Lakes Excessive Faculty and has been a Lady Scout since she was about 6 years previous.
“As I bought older, and Lady Scouts grew to become extra related with the gold award getting nearer, my mother introduced up the thought of doing one thing with animals,” she mentioned. “I at all times knew I needed to do one thing with animals, however she requested about one thing that we’ve a giant challenge with on the shelter. So, I believed fostering, as a result of we’re at all times overcrowded and that’s the greatest strategy to get animals out and get extra animals in from the streets.”
She continued: “We get lots of animals from Newark at my shelter and more often than not they’re moms with kittens and it is rather a lot. Normally you may’t foster these out, however what you are able to do is foster out the adults that you’ve … so I began speaking to different shelters, asking round and seeing what they need assistance with, they usually mentioned fostering is the largest challenge they’ve proper now as a result of they want extra turnover, extra animals going out to allow them to have extra getting into.”
Foster a Pet Month in New Jersey
At some point, whereas working at an adoption occasion at Petco, Gillen got here throughout a flyer for the corporate’s nonprofit Petco Love. The flyer highlighted the truth that June is Nationwide Foster a Pet Month. With this, Gillen noticed a possibility inside New Jersey and set to work, drafting a proclamation, writing letters to the state, and following up on a month-to-month foundation.
On Could 16, she obtained an e-mail with the signed proclamation and on Could 29, following eight months of effort, Gov. Phil Murphy formally proclaimed June because the state’s Foster a Pet Month.
“Because of the advocacy of Mountain Lakes pupil and Lady Scout Sophia Gillen, ‘Foster a Pet Month’ is now a actuality,” mentioned Murphy on X. “NJ has a whole bunch of animal shelters that provide foster alternatives – an unbelievable strategy to give these animals a brief dwelling.”
In keeping with the Petco Love web site, the objective of celebrating Foster a Pet Month is to encourage communities to get entangled and help their native shelters by means of fostering.
“Shelters cannot management when a canine is surrendered or a stray cat with new child kittens are discovered and have to be rescued from unsafe situations,” mentioned Sherry Dally, treasurer of the Bloomingdale Regional Animal Shelter Society, who has labored with Gillen all through her undertaking. “Fostering a canine or cat for just a few hours or days reduces the animal’s stress and creates extra shelter house for different animals.”
She continued, “Foster households get to get pleasure from time with a pet and study its character and habits, which they’ll share with potential adoptive households. Everyone wins and fostering saves lives.”
Phenomenal Foster Pets patch for Lady Scouts
Along with advocating for the implementation of Foster a Pet Month in New Jersey, Gillen created an unique enjoyable patch known as “Phenomenal Foster Pets” in addition to a lesson that explains what fostering is and the way youngsters and youths can advocate for animals.
The patch just isn’t but an official Lady Scouts of America patch, however it may be bought on Ebay.
Working with Petco Love
Though she has already completed a lot, Gillen just isn’t carried out but.
She is working with Petco Love to assist teenagers throughout the nation petition to make Foster a Pet Month a actuality in each state.
In a latest article, which highlighted Gillen’s work on the Petco Love web site, Petco Love President Susan Kogut mentioned: “Sophia is an extremely spectacular younger lady. Her drive and dedication to animal welfare at such a younger age are really inspiring. We’re excited to focus on her achievements and help her objective of increasing this initiative nationwide.”
Gillen can be working to create a nonprofit that can enable her to succeed in extra shelters and make her undertaking extra accessible. She plans to create a platform the place folks should purchase the patches and study extra in regards to the significance of fostering, whether or not or not it’s by means of a booklet, a program, an academic lesson or only a enjoyable studying expertise.
“There may be nonetheless positively rather a lot that I need to do with this,” mentioned Gillen, who will obtain her gold award throughout a 2025 awards ceremony.
“Me and the volunteers at BASS are so very pleased with Sophia and what she has completed together with her Phenomenal Foster Pets initiative,” Dally mentioned. “Sophia loves animals and may be very keen about caring for them and discovering them good houses. Sophia has been a BASS volunteer for 2 years and through that point has acknowledged the necessity for extra foster houses and its advantages for each the shelter animals and households.”