FORT STEWART, Ga. - As spring slowly approaches, Fort Stewart Families aren't the only ones rolling up their sleeves to do some spring cleaning.
The Georgia Animal Rescue and Defense, or GARD for short, also started on their spring cleaning on Feb. 18. This was due to the efforts of Spc. Branden Gums, 90th Human Resources Company, Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Sustainment Brigade, Third Infantry Division, coordinating some much needed assistance from the Fort Stewart Youth Challenge Academy, which is funded and operated by the Georgia Army National Guard. The idea for coordinating with the Youth Challenge Academy initially came when Spc. Gums was searching for a way to increase the volunteer base at the GARD shelter.
"We have so many projects going on at the shelter right now, it's hard to come up with the help to get them all finished," said Spc. Gums, who also serves as GARD's public information officer. "Not a lot of folks are interested in driving out to Pembroke to help out for some reason, so I decided to start looking into places some might not otherwise think of for our volunteers."
The coordination process was initiated when he visited the Youth Challenge Academy and spoke with them regarding their community service program. After the proposed time and date was submitted and approved by the cadre over the span of about a week, the rest of the plan simply fell into place.
"To have these cadets available to us was a fantastic opportunity to make some much needed head way on our projects. It couldn't have come at a better time for us," said Joy Bohannon, CEO of GARD.
On the day of spring cleaning, 25 volunteers from the Fort Stewart Youth Challenge Academy assisted GARD with cleaning up the shelter. As they began to clear and trim bushes, reorganize the shelter storage areas, and clean around the shelter, sounds of enthusiastic cadences could be heard from some of them.
The GARD is a non-profit, no-kill animal shelter whose mission is to save and protect homeless and neglected dogs and cats in the area. Just last year, the organization was responsible for saving more than 1,000 animals. With Georgia being the state with highest kill state for such animals, GARD also transports animals to adoption events in other states to help find them their forever home.
The Fort Stewart Challenge Academy is a program aimed to assist teenagers ages 16 to 18 in developing academic excellence, life-coping skills, community service, health and hygiene, skills training, leadership, and physical training. One of the highlights of the program is that the teenagers are afforded the opportunity to earn their GED.
As the day drew to an end, faces of satisfaction could clearly be observed from the staff members of GARD, as well as the volunteers themselves. For more information on GARD, check Web site, www.gardonline.org.
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