Women's Lacrosse Program Teams Up With Animal Shelters for Holiday Donations

Dec 16, 2020

LEICESTER, Mass. – Members of the Becker College women's lacrosse program are spending the holiday season spreading love and joy to animal shelters across the country from local shelters in Worcester to areas surrounding the Orlando-area in Florida.

Including Head Coach Stephanie Blakely, 11 members of the women's lacrosse program are collecting donations for their local animal shelters over the coming weeks.

Although the holiday season would normally leave animal shelters low on the basics to raise a newly-adopted pet, the pandemic has caused an explosion in adoption of cats and dogs, among other four-legged friends, that have stretched animal shelters to the limits.

Studies conducted from a six-month period from mid-March to mid-August show that animal adoption is up as much as 200% from the same period in 2019.

"We want to encourage people to donate items to animal shelters," said Blakely. "We may not be able to physically handle all of the donations ourselves, but we want people to know the shelters are in need and we want to encourage them to stop into a local shelter if they can't drop off the donation at one of the shelters we're involved with."

The women's lacrosse team planned on volunteering at animal shelters during Spring Break 2020, but with COVID-19 canceling those plans, the program decided to help shelters stock up on toys, treats, and animal care items during the holiday season.

"We know that with the pandemic, shelters were hit just as hard as other businesses," said Blakely. "Animal shelters rely heavily on donations to make the animals feel more comfortable during their stay."

The most local of the animal shelters in relation to Becker College is the Worcester Animal Rescue League where juniors Clare Conway, Julia Ravenelle, Victoria Chiuchiolo, and sophomore Amber Lee are volunteering their time and handling donations for the local shelter.

Sophomore Gabriela Savage is donating to Empowered Equines of Connecticut, a non-profit rescue horse barn that she volunteers at.

"Since the COVID pandemic has started the owner has been struggling with having to care for all of the animals mostly by herself," said Savage. "Most of the people who had been previously working there are not able to come out because of the pandemic. This has put a lot of stress on the owner so by getting these donations I hope to relieve some stress that this pandemic has caused."

Below is the list of shelters that members of the women's lacrosse program are donating to over the holiday season.

To learn more about these shelters and how to donate to them, click the links associated with the shelters or if you can't make a donation to any of these locations, we encourage you to make a donation to your local shelter! Below the names from our women's lacrosse program are the most commonly requested items from animal shelters.

Coach Stephanie Blakely – Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (Baltimore, Md.)

Clare Conway, Julia Ravenelle, Victoria Chiucholo, Amber Lee – Worcester Animal Rescue League (Worcester, Mass.)

Chloe Isola – Seminole County Animal Shelter (Sanford, Fla.)

Gabriela Savage – Empowered Equines of Connecticut

Shelby Reaugh – SPCA of Wake County (Raliegh, N.C.)

Debbie Rowbotham – Nashua Humane Society (Nashua, N.H.)

Olivia Sherwood – Southington Dog Pound (Southington, Conn.)

Sydney Theriault – New Milford Animal Shelter (New Milford, Conn.)

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