On Saturday, Nov. 12, the Laramie Animal Welfare Society (LAWS) partnered with SLCE and hosted a service event at their newest facility.
“We are painting these walls from the black to a green color so it’s not so dark,” explained Kyler Russow, a volunteer on the project.
The atmosphere while painting the walls was lighthearted and jovial. The volunteers interacted with one another while listening to music and helping out.
“I just think it’s a great opportunity to do something useful on a Saturday and you get to meet lots of new people,” said Chelsea Martinez, another volunteer.
Martinez explained that she was passionate about animals and wanted to make a better place for them.
LAWS does not have any paid employees and relies only on the work of volunteers, so when the society does any large projects, they need a large amount of community assistance.
LAWS recently hosted a different event in which volunteers came and assisted in painting the outside of their main facility.
The space that LAWS rented for their intake facility was previously a parking area for food trucks, and later, a crossfit gym.
The paint that was chosen is a Sherwin Williams product that has air purifying properties. The paint will purify the air and help kill germs and other harmful agents in the air for the next four years.
Michelle Craig, the intake facility manager for LAWS explained that the project was a good opportunity to outreach to the community. She also explained that the new pastel green color would brighten the environment for volunteers to work in.
“We chose a color that’s been proven to reduce stress in animals,” said Craig.
The society holds around 15 animals, which are generally cats with an occasional visit from a dog. They currently have 12 kennels in their intake facility and usually have a number of kitten litters and some feral cats. As of Saturday, they had four adult cats and several litters of kittens.
The society is very conscientious when taking in animals and making sure that the sharing of diseases is kept at a minimum.
“We’re just trying to help protect our volunteers and our cats from potentially spreading stuff back and forth,” said Craig.
Approximately 20 volunteers came to help prepare the intake facility for winter. The managers at LAWS reported that they hoped to partner with SLCE in the future and to increase their volunteer work.
