Donating money to an organization is one thing, but it’s even more rewarding to be able to match a donation with a concrete action. Donating an animal to a family in need is a way to do this and to ensure that the needs of the community are met in a sustainable way. To fulfill this idea, members of the St. Paul Academy and Summit School student group, People for Animal Welfare and Safety (PAWS), organized a bake sale where all of the proceeds went to this cause.

The revenue from the bake sale that was held  from Feb. 19-20 during lunch periods will be donated to the charity Heifer International. Heifer is an organization that takes donations and uses them to buy animals such as goats, sheep, or ducks for a family in need. “The animals are given to people to help them live and give them products,” sophomore PAWS member Samantha Bluhm said.

Heifer International also functions off a model of sustainability, asking each family to whom they donate an animal to share its offspring with the community. Aside from just using the animals as a food source, families can used the products obtained from their livestock to become more economically independent. “They [can] use the sheep for wool then sell the wool that they produce to make money,” Bluhm said.