Muttville: 7th Grader Josh Raises $1000 for the Senior Dogs of Muttville

7th Grader Josh Raises $1000 for the Senior Dogs of Muttville

What an inspiration for children and adults alike! Josh is a student at The Wornick Jewish Day School. As part of a school project, Josh collected over $1000 for Muttville.

In Josh’s own words, he describes why he chose Muttville.

“I am a 7th grader named Josh Lipson. In my school every year, we have a project called the Tzedakah project. In this project each student selects one organization to research and donate to. We also choose a topic. The general topic I chose was animal abuse. The organization I chose was Muttville.

Unfortunately thousands of dogs are killed every day, millions every year. The two main reasons are puppy mills and not neutering and spaying animals. Puppy mills are gruesome facilities that make a profit off selling animals. They house them in cages with hay on the bottom. They breed and breed and breed. This leads to the over-population of animals. And if there are too many animals. They have to be euthanized. This can all be stopped. By taking a stand and donating to amazing organizations like Muttville. Muttville is a great organization that deserves respect. They aren’t working in self interest, they are working for the greater good.”

This year long project is a study of philanthropy that begins with the students identifying causes they believe are important. The students investigate various societal problems or diseases and the various organizations that support these concerns. Based on their research, students choose both a cause and an organization. The student then interviews key people at their organization to gain a deeper understanding of how the organization works including hard facts and numbers like how many people are served and the budget of the organization. Armed with this information, the students create and drive their own fund-raising campaign. Typically, each 7th grader year drives an effort that raises $1000 to $1500. This money is pooled into a class-wide Tzedakah fund. In the spring, each student presents their organization and advocates for it with their classmates. Based on the information shared, the class becomes a non-profit board which allocates the total funds to each project. The project culminates with a moving ceremony in which representatives from each organization come to school and are presented with a check.