The Pause Club is a club for middle school girls run by Sawyer Campbell, a junior at JHS and a former JMS Mariner. This club benefits both the girls and the kittens by socializing the kittens to make them more adoptable and giving the girls a safe space to talk about issues concerning them related to school, life, and friends.
All About Pause
Pause is used as a way for middle school girls to have someone to ask their questions about high school while helping adorable kittens get used to humans. Fostering kittens helped Sawyer relieve stress and relax when she was in middle school, and she hopes to extend that to other girls and have it be a way for students to speak about their problems to people (and animals) who are there to listen. “Any middle school girls are allowed in the club. They just have to reach out to me.” The club has already worked to help students address major stressors, including the start of a new school year, changing schools, and friendship norms, among other things.
No community service hours are awarded to members unless they assist with a fundraiser. Unfortunately, there is no plan for the club after Sawyer’s graduation, but she hopes to be able to pass it on to another so it can continue.
Sawyer
Sawyer has been fostering kittens since she was in 6th grade at Jupiter Middle School. She initially started fostering because she loved helping people and animals, and has fostered over 175 kittens. Her favorite part about fostering is that she gets to teach the kittens not to be afraid of humans, and of course, cuddling with them at night.
Fostering
Fostering kittens gets you around 4 community service hours per day. It may seem easy, but taking care of multiple baby animals who don’t know anything yet is a huge responsibility. With kittens, you have to feed them, clean their litter boxes, keep them entertained, take them to the vet, and prepare them for their future families. You also have to sacrifice an area in your house to let them play and grow without getting hurt. Sawyer gets her foster kittens from Palm Beach Purrs by filling out an application, but there are a few other organizations that allow fostering animals. If you decide to foster, just make sure your parents or guardians are willing to help because, as Sawyer adds, “It is also a little stressful if a kitten gets sick, but my parents help a lot.”
Contacts
If you have any questions on how to start fostering, email Palm Beach Purrs at palmbeachpurrs.org
If you have any questions about the Pause club, you can email Dana Fellows or Grace Fischer a Google Doc of your questions, and we will try our best to answer them quickly.
