Groups partner to make blankets for shelter

FAIRFIELD - A Jefferson County 4-H Club has donated fleece blankets to a Fairfield animal shelter, with a helping hand from a local Girl Scout troop.

The Future Forgers 4-H Club made and donated blankets to Noah's Ark Animal Shelter so its cats and dogs would have something nice and warm to sleep on in their enclosures. The Future Forgers were actually finishing a project started by Girl Scout Troop 9560 in Fairfield, whose members began making blankets during their meetings in early 2020 before the pandemic forced their in-person meetings to end.

Heidi Pickard, the adult leader of Troop 9560, said the Girl Scouts looks for a community service project every year. In 2020, they set their sights on earning a special Community Service Girl Scout Badge. They looked around the area for opportunities and came upon Noah's Ark, an animal shelter they'd helped in the past by donating supplies.

The animal shelter told the girls it didn't have any projects to do at the shelter itself, but Executive Director Dawn Hauck mentioned to Pickard that an anonymous donor had dropped off a large amount of fleece. Hauck said it would be nice if somebody could make the fleece into blankets to line the dog and cat kennels.

Pickard asked her girls if they wanted to make blankets, and they jumped at the chance.

The girls cut the fleece to specific measurements and then secured two pieces of fleece together by cutting little strips around the edges and tying the strips into knots. They worked on this during their meetings in early 2020 until COVID stopped them from meeting.

Pickard hoped that the virus would pass and that the Girl Scouts could begin meeting over the summer, but the virus stuck around. When it was time to start a fresh year in the fall, Pickard discovered that only one of the six girls planned to continue with the club. Meanwhile, Pickard was starting a new job, and she decided it was time to resign from her post. Ten years since its creation, Troop 9560 disbanded.

The blanket project was left about half done. But fortunately for the animals at the shelter, Pickard leads another group of youngsters, the Future Forgers 4-H Club, and they were hungry for a community service project.

The Future Forgers normally help with the Christmas box packing each November through The Lord's Cupboard. Because of COVID, The Lord's Cupboard did not invite outside groups to help in 2020. Pickard told the group she still had reams of fleece left to turn into blankets, and they loved the idea of finishing the project the Girl Scouts had started.

The Future Forgers are a much larger club with 21 members. Pickard gave each one fleece to take home at the November meeting, and they brought back completed blankets to the December meeting. Pickard dropped off all the blankets at Noah's Ark in January, a welcome sight to the shelter's cats and dogs.