Harry Lin / Staff Reporter
Woodworking teacher Chris Sheppard and his previous student Jazmine Cabaluna, grade 12,began working on cat shelters for the Cat Therapy and Rescue Society in April.
The Cat Therapy and Rescue Society (CTRS) is an organization that prides themselves in being a rescue organization that takes in cats that were turned away due to medical needs.
Sheppard discovered the organization last year and began to volunteer for them. The cat shelters are the first woodworking related projects he has done for the CTRS, and they are designed and built to include their own ventilation and insulation, making it a safe home for cats.
Unfortunately, the shelters were not able to be finished on time and Sheppard wanted to get them done this year before the harsh winter weather came.
To achieve this, Sheppard decided to get help from two of his students in block one: Lucas Vine and William Gajdoaik, both grade 12.
“I asked my two best students to come as they have experience and asked if they would be willing to step in and finish the project with the final details that we needed”, explained Sheppard. “They were more than willing which was great”
Gajdoaik expressed how he just “wanted to do something good for the community” and that he “didn’t have any other projects to complete at the time” and “should be devoting it to doing something good”.
Vine explained that, “100% if someone commissions me, I’ll do anything in terms of woodworking”.
The finished shelters are set to be put on the CTRS executive director Melina Csontos’s property, which would allow her to take in feral cats and release them within her property.
“This was the first kind of large thing I’ve done for a community” says Gajdoaik, “but it’s a really kind of nice feeling knowing that I’ve done something to help even if it’s just creating two cat shelters”.
Sheppard is planning on making more shelters for the CTRS and says that it’s something he’ll be looking at in the second semester.