23 March, 2015
A number of Boston University students are spending their spring break volunteering at various locations throughout the country. A handful of volunteers from Boston University chose to help out Greyhound friends in Hopkinton. The students helped shovel paths for the Dogs and cleaned up Greyhound Friends. The students volunteered as part of an alternate spring break program in which students can choose to volunteer at locations around the country to give back to the community. Boston University Junior and Co-Coordinator of the program Gemma Forest explained; "Currently there are a bunch of BU students out all over the country...it's a lot more of an affordable trip as well, so it's the perfect option." Freshman Co-coordinator Ryan Distaso also helped spread the word about the program and chose Greyhound friends to help out the animals; "it's part of our job to spread the word to get people interested in giving back and doing community service." Director of Greyhound Friends Louise Coleman was grateful for the help of the volunteers. Louise explained that it is great to have the volunteers and see young people volunteering during their vacation time. Louise also mentioned that Greyhound friends is always looking for help from volunteers including physical labor or computer work. Greyhound Friends can be reach at www.greyhound.org, greyhndfds@aol.com or 508-435-5969.
For more Information on the BU volunteers watch the first video.
All the snow has made it a tough winter throughout the region. Greyhound Friends has had many obstacles of their own including frozen gates, employees needing to stay overnight to take care of the Dogs and a lot of snow cleanup. Director Louise Coleman gave HCAM News an update on how Greyhound Friends has fared throughout the copious amount of snow that fell this winter. "it's been a terrible winter for working here and when it's been cold and awful all the gates are frozen, so you have to get a hammer to open the gates...when it's cold the dogs don't want to go out, they go out and run back in, it just makes all the usual practicalities of life much more difficult." Louise mentioned that she is grateful for staff members she has willing to stay overnight, her plow and volunteers helping with dog food drives. Louise also mentioned that Greyhound Friends was able to install a generator this year as well. "The Dogs are all warm, safe, happy and we'll just keep plugging along."
To see the full update, watch the 2nd video.
