2021 Kindness Contest | Teen Ink

2021 Kindness Contest

November 22, 2021
By Anonymous

In May 2019 I had started thinking of what I should do for my eagle scout project. I first thought about making dog beds for HAWS (Humane Animal Welfare Society). Once we thought that was a good idea we called them, they said they didn't need anything for dogs, but they were getting overflowed with cats and needed anything that would help them get home. They told us that catboxes would help because people who come to adopt cats can't take them home without an outdoor cat box. 

We started building in June 2020. I called a wood company and asked if they could donate some of that wood to us. We took the wood they had donated and started to build the boxes.

Due to Covid, it was hard to get volunteers to help make these catboxes. We were going to print out instructions and put supplies to make the cat boxes for people to take home and make, but nobody would do it then. So I had about three volunteers, some neighbors, and family members come over to help, all would come at different times because nobody wanted to get sick. 

Each box was about four by three feet and took two hours to make each box. We started by cutting out the wood to make the walls and slanted roof. Once the walls were finished and put in place we had stapled in the flooring and put in the soft walls so the cats don't get hurt or so water doesn't leak in. The roof slid on top and we attached the hinges to the roof so that the roof can open from the top. Next, we painted the boxes, and bought roof shingles, and attached that to the top of the box. 

In the end, we had made nineteen cat boxes that can hold up to five cats each. All of these boxes had gone to HAWS for free, the total cost was around $2,000. This had helped HAWS start to let people take cats home who don't have an outdoor cat box. This also helped HAWS because they used to be overflowed with cats and couldn't give them home without people having a box. When they started to give homes they could finally bring in more homeless cats.



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