If you are someone who has a desire to benefit and improve your community—especially when it comes to animals—then you should invest yourself in Chamblee’s Paws for a Cause. Paws for a Cause is a service-oriented club that works to bring Chamblee’s community and peers together to help animals that are continuously mistreated and uncared for in certain shelters and living situations. Paws for a Cause reaches out to all in the Atlanta community, providing opportunities to those who want to dedicate their time to helping animals.
“We mainly focus on issues such as overcrowding shelters and animal abuse situations, and members can participate in a variety of different volunteering events related to animals, such as volunteering at horse stables, cat shelters, dog shelters, or even making toys for [the animals],” said Gia Choy (‘26).
Paws for a Cause is open to anyone who advocates for the betterment of animal treatment or wants to volunteer more generally. They meet once every month to discuss future events and other current happenings
“We talk about future events that we will do. Apart from the interest meeting, we usually do drives throughout the month until the end of the month to collect dog treats, enrichment toys, and blankets for the [shelter] dogs that we can donate after the meeting,” said Luiza Douglas (‘24).
Officers Douglas, Hannah Choy (‘24), Gia, and Hanna Lin (‘24) aim to make the club schedule-friendly and easy for their members to gain service hours. If members cannot go far away to places like shelters and farms, they can get their service hours at meetings.
The idea of Paws for a Cause originally blossomed from the officers’ communal love for animals.
“Hannah and I founded Paws for a Cause with our other officers, Hanna and Gia. Hannah came up to me one day and was like, ‘Let’s do animal club,’ and I was like, ‘I love animals,’ so we started the club during our junior year,” said Douglas (‘24).
This club appealed to many because of its outreach towards animals and distinct name.
“This club appealed to me because we don’t see many like it, and I like the fact that it is very open and descriptive, but also that it’s rare to see animal welfare clubs,” said Annabella Lespinasse (‘26).
“I enjoy being able to volunteer with a lot of new people, and connecting with people over a common ground (animals) is fun. I also think animals are so cute, and I love them,” said Gia Choy.
Founder Douglas and other members have an extensive history with animals, which is an additional reason for joining the club.
“I grew up in Brazil on my uncle’s farm, so I was surrounded by all these animals. I have a core memory of an old car that my grandpa owned, when he died, it deteriorated, and there were all these cats in the car. Another big part of Brazil is all the stray dogs, and you aren’t allowed to help them because they will follow you home and kill your chickens. It was always frustrating to me to see all these starving dogs and not be able to do anything about it,” said Douglas.
The first interest meeting was held on September 12th, garnering positive reactions from students.
“I liked the interest meeting. I thought it was very informative and helpful to introduce the club to new people and pique their interests,” said Lespinasse.
Officers Douglas and Gia Choy were also taken aback by the club’s interest meeting turnout this year.
“It was crazy; there weren’t enough seats for everyone, which was really nice. There were so many people, which was nice because everyone seemed so passionate. They were coming back and asking us questions about the club,” said Douglas.
Many describe the first meeting of this year as flourishing and overflowing with people.
The interest meeting piqued many people’s interest, and all are excited to see how the club is going to impact Chamblee High School. New members should prepare themselves for the exciting events that Paws for a Cause has planned. They have assembled various events that are all service-oriented and animal-focused.
“We are planning on doing an adoption drive here at Chamblee as well as collaborating with cross country to take [sheltered] dogs for runs and give them exposure to people,” said Douglas.
The club plans on doing drives and volunteer events to help shelters in need. They are also raising awareness for other people who might not be able to join but are still interested.
If you want to make an impact in your community and help animals, joining Paws for a Cause would be an amazing opportunity. You and your friends can work together and meet amazing people who have the same passion for animal welfare as you do.
