Kaitlyn Graybill

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"A Place To Call Home”

Imagine living your entire life, crammed in a cage two sizes too small, with nothing but an old rag and the cold hard floor.  Maybe you get taken out every once in a while, but not nearly enough.  This is what way too many animals suffer through every day in shelters, waiting for one day to finally be adopted.  However, for some, that day will not come and they will be put down. Katie strongly believes that kill-shelters are cruel, and people need to be made aware about adopting animals from shelters, rather than going to a pet store and buying one.  Her goal was to educate people about how important it is to adopt and rescue shelter animals.  In order to do this, Katie ran a mascot contest at one of our elementary schools aimed at teaching rescue shelter awareness.  The program resulted in elementary students submitted mascot designs for which Katie used one to create a mascot for Eleventh Hour Rescue.  This is a no-kill, non-profit shelter that saves shelter animals from death row in kill-shelters, especially in the South. Katie had a costume created for the mascot, which will be used at various Eleventh Hour events to draw even more awareness to the organization and no kill shelters.

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Katie also raised awareness about adoption, through a “Blessing of the Animals” event and “Strut you Mutt” event.  These events allowed the community to learn about Eleventh Hour and their no kill status.