M&M’s Fur-Ever Furbabies: Build-A-Bear Youth Humane Education Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

MMFFR was awarded the Build A Bear Youth Humane Education Grant by the Petfinder Foundation in 2017 to assist with our youth program N.G.A.A. (Next Generation Animal Advocates). The funding was used to purchase new supplies for the youth participants, advertising of the program and for transportation which allowed the youth participants to attend the program and events.

The grant helped the youth participants of the program by providing proper animal behavior-training techniques and teaching responsible pet ownership practices. The pets of our organization benefited through having the youth participants assist with handling, bathing, walking, feeding, and socializing with them. They also each had a specific youth volunteer who worked with an individual animal, which they then advocated for at events to help find them forever homes.

How many pets did this grant help?

20

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

Because so many were helped as the result of this grant, it was hard to choose just one to speak about. One who stands out would have to be Mystasha (first photo), a female pit-bull terrier who was abused prior to being rescued. She was particularly afraid of men and boys, but through working with the youth participants of N.G.A.A., Mystasha was able to overcome her fear and open up to a young boy named Alex who advocated for her while he attended the program. They became very close and bonded, which lead to Alex and his family adopting Mystasha. She now lives with them as the princess she’s always been.