Summer Volunteering in my Hometown

Over this summer, I spent most of my time in my home town as I usually do. I am from a very small town in Wisconsin called Bayfield. It's as far north as you can go on the shores of Lake Superior. My dad's side of the family is all from this area. One of my great grandfathers was a commercial fisherman on the lake, and the other was a doctor who ran the tuberculosis sanitorium in town. My family has a very deep history in this town and I have learned a lot about it in my years of growing up both there and in the Chicago area.

CM "House" (2019)

This summer was different than summers in the past. I usually spend summers in Bayfield and in the past few years I have worked at various restaurants while living with my grandparents and spending time with friends and family. This year, my grandfather's health was declining. This meant they couldn't stay for the whole summer. I had spent some time with my family as a family vacation but then went back to Chicago with my grandparents. I then went back up north with my grandparents and my dad in early August. My grandparents both work closely as volunteers with the local historical association. The Bayfield Historical Association. The BHA as it is known around town is a non-profit organization founded in the 1980s. My grandparents have been with the organization since it's founding. There is a museum in town that has different exhibits about the history of Bayfield. These include the history of the islands, fishing, logging, hunting, the great flood and more. Recently, the BHA acquired a model train from a local man named Larry Wrighton. The Wrightons are a local family with deeps history in Bayfield, as well as my names (LaPointe and Moody). Larry Wrighton created a to-scale model railroad of historic Bayfield in the 1920s. He had been working on this project since the early 1990s. He donated it to the BHA in 2016. The BHA took it apart and put it back together in the basement of the museum as an exhibit on historical Bayfield.

My job was to be a docent at the exhibit. I already knew a lot about the history of Bayfield, so I was oriented by a long-time friend Bill Gover. He told me all about the trains and how they were made and assembled. I then had my first shift. I would show visitors the train and the town and tell them about the history of Bayfield. I answered their questions and told them about my family and my own history in Bayfield.

I thought this was a very cool experience I was able to have. I got to learn more about my town's history and got to educate tourists on how special this town really is. I got to make more connections with friends and the management at the BHA. In the end, this was a very fun and meaningful way to spend some of my time over the summer.

CM "Deer" (2019)

Fostering Kittens

Katie Moody. "Lector"(2018)

The big service project I did this year was fostering kittens. My family has 2 adult cats that we adopted when they were kittens. We all missed having kittens around, and when we heard about the Animal Care Leauge's foster program, we wanted to go try it out. The Animal Care League is an animal shelter in Oak Park. They have dogs, cats, rabbits, and other small animals. In August, we met with Allan, the director of the cat program at the shelter. He told us they had just brought in a kitten from the streets who has chewed on an electrical cord and got shocked. He has burns on his mouth and neck from the shock. The kitten's name was Lector, but we changed it to Oliver. Oliver is a little white and tabby cat with a ton of energy. He has to wear a cone around his neck for part of the time while his burns healed. We took Oliver home and set him up. We would give him antibiotics every day, and played with him constantly. He was a very sweet little cat. We had him for about 2 weeks. By the time he went back to the shelter, he was much healthier, and many of his burns had healed. This was a very fun and successful foster.

Meredith Moody. "Lexi" (2018)

Later in September, we received an email from Allan that they had just found 2 very small kittens on the street. They were too little to stay in the shelter, so they needed a home for them. We went that afternoon to pick up 2 tiny adorable kittens named Lexi and George. They were both about a month old. These were some of the smallest kittens I had ever seen. They only weighed 1 pound! We started to encounter problems when we got home. Lexi had really bad diarrhea. We thought it was just from stress, or from eating actual kitten food for the first time. These kitties had only every drank their mom's milk, or eaten what they could find. We could tell right away that George was doing better than Lexi. George was a typical high energy kitten running and jumping.

Lexi was very lethargic and just wanted to be held and cuddled. We weren't immediately concerned because we thought she was just having a harder time adjusting than her brother. We started worrying when she wasn't eating or drinking. She continued to have diarrhea, but not drinking anything. This is not good because she was very dehydrated. We took her to the shelter because they have a vet. They said she was dehydrated and had some sort of intestinal virus. They gave her intravenous and subcutaneous fluids to rehydrate her. They also gave us some medicine for her intestinal problems and gave her some really rich food so she would eat it. We would take her back every day for intravenous fluids, and to check on her. She started eating and drinking again. She had a very good appetite and would try to steal her brother's food. She was doing so much better. Unfortunately, the next morning, my mom found Lexi in her bed not breathing. Sadly, she had died in her sleep. We felt very sad. She was getting better but still died. We took peace in the fact that she wasn't suffering anymore, and had seemingly just stopped breathing in her sleep. The vet wasn't sure why exactly she died. they thought she may have had a common virus in kittens that can be fatal. She was tested, and it was negative, but it may have been a false negative, or she hadn't contracted it yet.

Katie Moody. "George" (2018)

George did not seem affected by his sister's death. He continued to be a happy healthy kitten. As George got older, the vet told us he had to be neutered. This was mid-October and he was about 2 months old. We took George in for his surgery and came back to pick him up later. When we got back, the surgeon had some news for us. The surgery went perfectly, but it turns out George was a girl! They ended up spaying her instead of neutering. This was quite surprising. To this day, we still don't know if Lexi was a boy, or if they were 2 girls. The shelter originally told us that it was a boy and a girl. Lexi had longer hair, and George had short hair. They said the long-haired one was a girl. This didn't change much. We started calling her Georgie instead of George. Georgie was a crazy kitten. She loved to run and play and especially loved to play with toys. We would let her run around the house and explore. She liked to play with the TV when it was on. She liked the moving figures. We ended up having Georgie for a total of 2 months and 1 week. We took her back to the shelter, and she was adopted by a young couple almost immediately. In conclusion, this was a very emotional, and trying experience. Taking care of such an innocent creature takes a lot of time and energy. I think this experience has helped me learn more about empathy in my medical career. This was a fun and intense experience that I definitely want to do again.

CM "Georgie" (2018)

CM "Oliver" (2018)

Volunteering at Paws Chicago

Over the course of this winter and spring, I volunteered at Paws Chicago. Paws is a no-kill shelter in Lincoln Park. They also have locations in Little Village and Highland Park. Paws has a program in which minors can volunteer with their parents. I am only 17, so I couldn't volunteer alone, my mom had to do it with me too. The program is for kids ages 12-17. We took a training course where the staff shared the basic rules and regulations and showed us around the facility. We signed up online for different shifts. Paws offers many different shifts at all different locations. These include reading to the animals at the surgical center in Little Village or being a door greeter at the Lincoln Park location. You can also volunteer to clean animal rooms and socialize animals. My mom and I first took a greeter shift. This was a 3-hour shift that consisted of standing in the lobby and directing people depending on what they were looking for. The Lincoln Park location is very busy, especially on the weekends, so we kept busy. We were able to help people fill out adoption surveys, and directed donations that people dropped off. The next time we went we did a cleaning shift. The first part was cleaning the cat rooms. We would mop the floors and clean the bedding and change the litter. We also got to socialize the cats in the shelter which was a lot of fun. We helped clean dishes and wash beds. We also got to clean the dog rooms while they were on walks. This consisted of spraying down the room with water and soap and use a long brush to scrub the floors and walls. Then, we would use a squeegee to drain the water. The most fun part about this whole job is the socialization of the dogs and cats. On this particular shift, we got to socialize a group of 3 labrador mix puppies. They were absolutely adorable. They were about 9 weeks old and cute as can be. We played with them, and then when they got tired, they slept on our laps. This was definitely the best part of volunteering. If you want to learn more about Paws click here. If you would like information about volunteering click here. 

Katie Moody. "Puppies" (2019)

Katie Moody. "Puppy Pile" (2019)

Katie Moody. "CM and Puppy." (2019)