South Amana, Iowa resides 30 miles west of Iowa City. Just over 150 people call it home. And, sadly, nearly 50 animals at Safe Haven of Iowa County animal shelter are without one.
Courtney Ralph balances working a full-time job with managing volunteers on her own time for the shelter. She helps ensure the animals get fed and taken out — but the animals often get left in their cage the majority of the day.
Volunteers are essential to getting sheltered animals comfortable with people. Even taking a dog for a walk or petting a cat can help them develop socially. Ralph described it as “enrichment time.”
“It sounds so simple, they get time with humans,” Ralph said. “The players spending quality time with them is good for their mental health.”
The need for volunteers led Courtney to an idea: Reaching out to Hawkeye football players. The request was simple: Raise awareness to the shelter on social media.
“I didn’t have much hope honestly, didn’t know if one or two people would respond,” Ralph said. “I thought if we could just get one or two of them to connect with an animal here, they could share our story.”
Jay Higgins and Luke Lachey decided to make the 35-minute drive west, and a quick impression was made.
“Jay Higgins and I walked in there and it’s kind of sad because all these animals are just in their cages,” Lachey recalled. “We were able to go and hang out with them and give them a bit of time outside of their cage. It was just a really cool experience.”
The word spread quickly, and before long matters turned into a contest. The Hawkeyes compete in “Hawkeye championship” teams — with community services hours as a category.
“It turned into one team going and then my team was like, ‘Why don’t we just do that? That sounds awesome.'” Joe Evans said. “We blew our past football teams out of the water. It was a great time, and it was great to volunteer for a greater cause.”
“We were at Safe Haven quite a bit, I think most of our guys put in at least 50-60 hours.”
Evans was correct. The final tally according to Ralph: 96 players combined to contribute 976 hours of volunteer work. According to Ralph, players sometime spent time that wasn’t documented.
The diversity of the volunteers with the players helps the animals feel comfortable in more situations and with more people. The variety of voice tones and size of people gives those animals a high quality of exposure. Ralph claims the shelter doesn’t have many young men who volunteer, and that specific type of exposure will them transition into a new family more easily.
“I think two things, the benefit of doing something for somebody else is always a good thing,” head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “Typically, you learn more than the person who’s benefitting from it does. The other thing, I always like to remind our guys that we all choose to do this, which is a great choice, but also we’re able to do this and not everybody is so lucky.”
Ralph’s a lifelong Iowa Hawkeyes fan, and this experience confirmed what she believed all along.
“To give your time to an animal or a person who can’t give back just shows how great of a person you are,” Ralph said. “I think it speaks a lot about the culture of the Hawkeye program. Previous to this I just believed they’re good people and now I just truly know.”
For those who wish to help the cause, please visit Safe Haven of Iowa County’s Facebook page for more information.
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