The Helping Every Animal Reach Tomorrow (HEART) organization is a new animal volunteer group on campus that developed during spring term and plans to expand this school year.
“Our goal for the future is to support the underfunded and overflowing animal shelters in the community,” said co-president Brian Kim, ’26. “We want to continue engaging with the community, and then get more students and even faculty involved with animals.”
Some of their more concrete goals include having weekly volunteer opportunities at different organizations and growing their membership, co-president Emily Sansbury, ’25, said.
Before, HEART was called RAAC, which stands for the Rockbridge Animal Advocacy Club, Kim said. The name was changed to represent the organization’s adjusted goals. The group was handed down to Kim from a graduating senior, he said.
“Originally it was supposed to be a consulting-type club where [HEART] offers help to different animal shelters at humane societies,” Kim said. “But since I’ve taken over, I transformed it a bit more into a volunteer organization where everybody can engage — not just people interested in vet medicine but anybody who has an interest in animal volunteering.”
Last spring term, HEART began their operations in the Rockbridge community by visiting a cat shelter called Furever Friends in Buena Vista and High Five Farms in Lexington. Along with these special events, they also began weekly volunteering trips to various shelters, Kim said.
The organization’s first formal event last year was at High Five Farms, which hosts a “goat yoga” event frequently run by the Outing Club. The owner showed 12 club members all the different animals that were on the farm, including geese, ducks, cows and goats.
“We got a lot of exposure to animals most of us weren’t typically around,” Kim said.
HEART’s first event this school year was in collaboration with the college’s Student Environmental Action League (SEAL) and took place at McCormick Farm during Parents Weekend. Sansbury said the event, known as Mill Day, featured farm tours, live music and barbeque.
Kim said HEART hopes to develop throughout the school year and offer more events that all students will be interested in. HEART will be partnering with High Five Farms to host a pumpkin-carving event on Oct. 31. High Five Farms will bring their goats to Canaan Green, and students will have the opportunity to bottle feed and pet the baby goats, Kim said. Toward the end of the event, students can feed the older goats the unused pumpkins from the carving session.
HEART has begun their weekly volunteerships with two local organizations, said Sansbury. They are continuing their partnership with the Furever Friends cat shelter and providing extra hands at Gentle Acres Animal Haven in Fairfield. Sansbury said the organization will also have a “fun day” with the animals at High Five Farms for the members of HEART to bond later in the semester.
“We’re excited to continue engaging with the community and getting more students and faculty involved with animals. We hope that this year HEART will expose all students, not just pre-vets, to new opportunities with animals,” said Kim.
