craigdailypress.com

When Mandy Duong and Ping Wu lost their Chihuahua on the first day of school last year, they decided that they wouldn't just mourn her.

Instead, they would do something to help out other families by collecting donated pet food and giving it to the Humane Society of Moffat County.

Wu and Duong, both 13 and in the seventh grade at Craig Middle School, have been collecting pet food around to honor their dog, Jenna.

"Our dog died, and we want to help collect cat and dog food for the Humane Society to feed hungry animals," Duong said. "I didn't know how other people felt when their dogs died, but after it happened to me, I felt really bad, and I knew how it felt. We want to help people so they won't feel like we felt."

Wu agreed with Duong. She said she wants to help out people who could lose their pets to hunger.

"This project is important to me because there are a lot of animals that are starving, and I want to help them," Wu said. "We want to help families that don't have enough money to feed their pets."

The effort to feed hungry pets has given the normally shy students extra attention.

"They were able to turn a negative into a positive," said Mary Pressley, a CMS librarian who has helped collect pet food. "They were upset and sad, but they decided to do something to help out other families."

The pair made decorative collection boxes and distributed them to every classroom in the middle school and will collect food until the end of March.

The classroom that collects the most food will get a one-day field trip to the Humane Society of Moffat County.

"The students will be able to tour the shelter, and get some time away from school," Pressley said. "Any kid that donates food will receive a coupon to come down and get a sucker."

But, the donations have been slow coming in, Pressley said.

"They'll be collecting food until the end of March, and that should give the students enough time to bring in donations, and we want to remind parents to give donations," Pressley said.

After she is finished collecting food for the shelter, Duong said that she wants to keep helping provide for needy animals.

"I think I could help out by going to the shelter and volunteering," Duong said.

Wu said that she would like to continue donating food and that when she's older she would like to be a veterinarian.

Ben Bulkeley can be reached at 875-1795 or bbulkeley@craigdailypress.com.