Roughly 40 volunteers spent the day Sept. 13 working at the Chilton County Humane Society on various projects for the shelter.

“We had a great day,” Chilton County Humane Society Board Secretary Katherine Reece said. “Having 40 volunteers show up was phenomenal. In the past, we have had trouble getting volunteers. People sometimes don’t like going to the shelter because it can be a depressing place, but we were overwhelmed with the response.”

Reece said the idea for the workday originated from a Chilton County Facebook group called “Chilton County Rant” where members of the group started complaining about different things at the shelter.

“People decided instead of complaining, they were going to do something about it, so the idea for the workday originated from that,” Reece said.

Other groups who participated in the workday included individuals from volunteer foster organizations that work with the shelter, members of the community, and representatives with Hotel Pit Bull in Montgomery.

Reece said volunteers arrived at 9 a.m. and cleaned rooms in the shelter, expanded the kennel portion of the shelter from three kennels to six outdoor kennels, cut all of the grass at the shelter, and walked all of the dogs.

“That was one of the biggest things of the day was every dog at the shelter got walked,” Reece said. “One of the volunteers from Hotel Pit Bulls bought pizzas for everyone at lunch, which was awesome.”

Currently, the shelter has an interim director named Sandra Moon, who was appointed by the Chilton County Humane Society Board last week.

Humane Society President Donna McCary said Moon came to the shelter after having worked at Prattville Humane Shelter.

“She comes highly recommended,” McCary said.

Currently, the board consists of Reece, who is the secretary; Tom Cuthbert, who is the treasurer; first chair vice president Lisa Sewell; and second chair vice president Beth McBride.

Reece said she was pleased to see the response from the community and hopes the shelter can make the workdays a frequent event.

In the meantime, Reece said individuals can donate much-needed items to the shelter including bleach, Fabuloso, dog and cat food and cat litter.

Reece said one thing the shelter is trying to encourage people to stop donating is old newspaper to go inside the crates of the animals in the shelter.

“We have actually found that when a dog or cat urinates on the newspaper, it creates a toxic chemical substance which isn’t good for the animal,” Reece said. “So, instead of newspaper, we are asking people to start bringing old towels we can put down in the crates instead of using the old newspaper.”

Reece said the board is thankful for the support from the community for the shelter including volunteers for the workday and different community members who donate items for the shelter.

Courtney Connell’s third grade science class at Clanton Intermediate School collected items for about two weeks this month and donated the items to the shelter.

Connell said the class collected 55 items of cat and dog food for the shelter after doing an “animal unit” in science for September.

“We were thrilled to receive the donations,” Reece said. “It was awesome seeing the class work together and come up with a project that helped the shelter.”

Reece said anyone interested in donating items to the Chilton County Humane Society can call the shelter at (205) 755-9170 or visit the shelter’s Facebook page at Chilton County Humane Society.