Oregon State University’s Community Engagement and Leadership organized Animal Action Day to coordinate a large volunteer effort for local organizations that support animal welfare.

According to Leah Rietema, the organizer of Animal Action Day, the event was a large effort by many put on by individuals on campus. 

“I think it would be to start the conversation and awareness of animals’ rights and how they are as much of inhabitants of this Earth as we are,” Rietema said. “At Community Engagement and Leadership we have different sectors of student staff that work on different programming. I am on the events team that works specifically on Days of Service.”

Animal Action Day was held on Saturday, March 7 and saw about 100 participants who went to work on various projects with local organizations, including Safe Haven Humane Society in Tangent, Lighthouse Farm Sanctuary in Scio and Corvallis Parks and Recreation.

Different programs were organized at different times of the day. Six projects left in the morning, and one left in the afternoon, sending students to volunteer with seven different organizations in total. 

Lineth Trujillo and Sydney Gowen both attended an event at the Craft Center, making cat toys and decorating bags for meals on wheels. 

“I like how organized [the event] was,” Trujillo said, with Gowen agreeing. 

Nikolo Vo went to Safe Haven, where he assisted in maintaining the facility. 

“We were given a tour of the facility,” Vo said. 

According to Vo, they then proceeded to clean up the areas around the facility, specifically, shoveling gravel in highly eroded areas of the facility. 

Maddy Thorne went to Heartland Humane Society. She attended the recommendation of her suitemate. 

“I thought it was really fun and beneficial,” Thorne said. 

The furthest out event organized by CEL was the Lighthouse Farm Sanctuary in Scio, which is a rescue sanctuary for various farm animals. 

According to Barry Beadles, the event lead for that trip, the star of the show was a blind and deaf bison named Helen, after Helen Keller. 

“The farm is awesome,” Beadles said. 

Rietema considers Animal Action Day a success, with them hitting 85% of their maximum capacity for the events of the day. 

Rietema hopes that more students get involved in the future for more events put on by Community Engagement and Leadership. The next major day of action is for Earth Day, on April 18. 

For more information and to sign up for the Earth Day activities, you can visit OSU’s website.