Welcome to 2023! A new year for new beginnings for every person and animal. It’s also a new year for our amazing Pawtectors to continue their year-round mission of showing kindness and compassion daily to all animals. Pawtectors promotes Compassion, Community, Contribution & Collaboration. These 4 C’s are the SuperPowers of kindness and help us to create a better society for all living things.
How many times have you heard people say “in this new year, I’m going to (fill in the blank)”? Check in with those same people even 30, 45, 60 days out, and most have already lost the excitement, enthusiasm and maybe energy to stick with something new. But kindness is something you never want to let slip from your day or your life. Imagine a world without kindness – not too inspiring, rewarding or fulfilling.
Let’s be the SuperHeroes we all can be. Let’s not only imagine, but help to CREATE a world where kindness rules! WOW… What a thought.
You might think – but I’m only one person. Yes, but do the math – if you reach out to 10 friends or family members – that’s 11 people who you know promising to say or do a kind deed every day. How many people are in your school or community? Let’s estimate 400. What if you asked your principal, church group, youth sports team, homeschool group, or local animal rescue/shelter if they could help you promote a “30 Day Kindness/Compassion Campaign”? If each of those 400 people asked 10 friends/family members to participate and take a “Kindness/Compassion Pledge” for 30 days, that would be 4400 people helping make your own backyard/community a kinder, more caring and compassionate place to live. Now imagine if even one person in 49 of the other 50 U.S. states did the same thing and got 400 people to ask 10 friends. Now that’s 220,000 people, 50 x 4400, all showing some sort of daily kindness.
See what the power of one superhero person can do? You’re super smart and super capable. The PawSquad knows you’ve got this!!
And, because we’re Pawtectors, we’re going to now focus on ANIMAL kindness & compassion.
Everyone can be kind – it doesn’t cost anything. It’s the quality of being friendly, generous & considerate. Generous doesn’t have to mean sharing money. Generous could simply mean sharing your time, talents, and your voice to make a positive difference.
Everyone can also be compassionate, but this sometimes requires a little more effort and understanding. To be compassionate is to have a concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.
There are 5 basic elements of compassion – recognizing suffering or a bad situation an animal had no control over, understanding that things are not always good, feeling for the animal in need, knowing it’s okay to feel uncomfortable about things and best of all, motivation to take action to help end the suffering.
If you could supercharge your superhero powers to help homeless animals, what would be the top 3 things you’d do?
Here is a list of 12 things (one per month) that you could try.
- Make posters for local adoptable animals to help them find their fur-ever homes and have a parent/guardian help you put them up in local animal friendly businesses.
- Participate in your local animal shelter/rescue reading to animals program.
- Make treats for adorable adoptables at your local shelter/rescue.
- Collect pennies and loose change from family, friends and local businesses in our “Pennies for Pawtectors” program. Then donate the money to a local shelter/rescue of your choice.
- Organize a canned/dry food drive for homeless animals.
- Find out what your local animal rescue/shelter is really in need of – maybe gently used towels/blankets for the winter to keep rescue animals warm. Ask if your school, youth group or church would participate in collecting these things for the rescue/shelter in need.
- Help feed the birds or other wildlife, with your guardian’s permission, this winter.
- Make shelters for smaller wildlife, birds, chipmunks and rabbits to help them throughout the winter.
- Make shelters for outdoor stray cats to keep them warm in the winter. Check with your local rescues/shelters to see if there are neighborhood groups you could help with feeding and care.
- Find a rescue organization for your favorite animal. Contact them and ask how you can help their animals
- Get a group of animal loving friends together to be an even bigger voice for animals. Maybe start a club at school or practice some of these together!
- Know that you are a PAWTECTOR for life. Ask your parent/guardian if you can join us online today.
Pawtector values are:
- The Power to Love all animals.
- The Power to show compassion for homeless & stray animals.
- The Power of community connecting Pawtector Super Heroes around the world.
- The Power of sharing stories of kids making a difference for animals.
Our Super Power practice words Pawtectors live by are “It takes nothing from a Human to be Kind to Animals”.
Will you pledge to show kindness to animals, and people, every day in 2023? Remember, what you give is what you receive. Give/show kindness. Receive kindness. It’s not the size of what you receive, it’s how you feel when you get it. How does a smile or a head butt from your favorite pet, purr from your favorite feline, cuddle from your favorite stuffed animal make you feel?
You don’t have to wear a superhero cape to show kindness … but if you want to, then go for it!
We can’t wait to hear what you are going to do to show kindness to animals in 2023. Ask your parent/guardian to share your SuperHero stories on our FB page! www.facebook.com/pawtectorsprogram
