Edgeworth Elementary School Kindness Week benefits Animal Friends

Many dogs and cats will not go hungry due to the kindness of Edgeworth Elementary students and the Quaker Valley community. The young learners were able to collect more than 800 pounds of pet food and supplies for Animal Friends Feb. 13-17 as part of the school’s Kindness Week.

They chose Animal Friends after a discussion with the parent/teacher association as a way to say thank you for bringing therapy dogs following a fatal fire in December that claimed the lives of two students.

The cause of the fire that claimed the lives of Sewickley residents Wylde Lightner, 6, a first grader, and Lyric Keys, 9, a third grader, remains under investigation.

Therapy dogs and counselors were made readily available the day after the incident.

“It was important to our school community that we repay the kindness that Animal Friends’ TheraPets had shown us,” school counselor Jessica Jackson said after the drive. “Students were engaged in learning about the project and excited to participate. Any time we do a collection at Edgeworth, our families’ generosity fills my heart, and this was no exception.”

Cecilia Oliveros, Animals Friends’ community resources coordinator, commended the Edgeworth students for their support.

“They did more than good,” she said. “It was really phenomenal. We do a lot of donation drives and they blew it out of the park. This is one of the most successful, if not the most successful, drives that I’ve seen.”

Fourth-grader Eden Westwood, who has five dogs of her own, was one of the helpers in the effort.

“I’m glad the stuff we collected will help animals that need homes and help people feed their pets because pets bring us joy,” she said. “If I’m ever sad, I like to cuddle up with my dogs. They always make me feel better.”

PTA volunteer Celina Kline has a fourth-grade and sixth-grade daughter in the district. She said Animal Friends really helped the students and the community through a difficult time, and was grateful the district was able to repay them in some way.

“(I’m) amazed at all the generosity for such a great cause that helped us in our time of need,” Kline said. “What an incredible community to be a part of.”

Kindness Week has been a part of the district for many years.

Edgeworth Elementary has done food drives the past two years as part of the festivities; one for Center for Hope in Ambridge and the other for the Sewickley Community Center. They each resulted in a truck load of donations.

Pet food donations help to sustain the charity’s Chow Wagon Pet Food Bank, which partners with food pantries throughout the region to support pet owners who are struggling to care for their pets.

The Chow Wagon distributed more than 180,000 pounds of pet food last year.

The items in greatest need for are small bags of dog and cat food and canned cat food.

More information about how to help the pet nonprofit is available at thinkingoutsidethecage.org.