Robert Chapman with one of the apparatus he built for the SAVE animal shelter in Princeton for his Eagle Scout project.
Robert and Elizabeth Chapman with Oreo, the family dog. Robert built a dog agility course for his Eagle Scout project, and Elizabeth is working on shelters in Hamilton for feral cats for her Girl Scout Gold Award.
Brother and sister dedicate Eagle Scout and Girl Scout Silver Award projects to animals
By Lacey Ross
Ewing residents Angela and Travis Chapman have always tried to instill a love for animals in their children.
“My family has always had a place for animals that couldn’t find homes,” Angela said. “You wish you could take them all in and it’s really hard.”
That’s why her kids, Elizabeth, 15, and Robert, 17, have dedicated their efforts to improving living conditions for local cats and dogs through scouting projects.
“I think it will make them more compassionate people,” Angela said, emphasizing the importance of caring for animals. “I think it will give them a soft spot in their hearts to help others, human as well as non-human.”
The family, which lives on Terrace Boulevard, has housed about 10 pets over the past 7 years, including fish, lizards, a hamster, a cat, and their 5-year-old Mini-Australian Shepherd, Oreo.
Robert, a student at Ewing High School, was sitting on his living-room couch last January watching television, when an idea struck him. A Boy Scout in Troop 33, Robert was in the process of brainstorming ideas for his upcoming Eagle Scout project.
“I was trying to think of stuff to do and then I was watching a dog competition and it kind of popped up,” the 11th grader said. “I thought a dog course would be pretty simple.”
The idea was not as simple as Robert originally envisioned, but he spent the next few months bringing it to life. After teaming up with SAVE Animal Shelter in Princeton, Robert sought donated materials from local business, and began developing a plan to create an agility course that could be housed at the shelter.
Robert said Home Depot, Sherwin Williams, West Trenton True Value Hardware, Ewing Glass and Mirror and Village Hardware were among the local businesses that donated supplies for the project.
With the help of his troop members, as well as his father, Travis, who is a manager at the Central New Jersey Scout Shop in Dayton, and his grandfather, Thomas Chapman of Chesterfield, Robert worked on the project over a span of three days, with a fourth day for delivering the pieces of the course to the shelter.
In the end, they had built two agility jumps, a hoop jump, an A-frame ramp and a rest table, right in Robert’s backyard. Finally, they were able to fundraise for two $100 tunnels, all together creating a full course. The whole project was completed by August 31. The Chapman’s dog, Oreo, tested each of the pieces out before delivery.
“Animals are kind of helpless,” Robert said. “Some of them were abandoned probably and I wanted them to have a better life, a little more happiness and freedom.”
Director of Shelter Operations at SAVE, Donielle Killian-Gioia, said she knew from the start that the course would provide the animals with a great opportunity for exercise. Killian-Gioia worked directly with Robert throughout the planning process, but said Robert did all of the fundraising and research himself.
“Dogs in a shelter environment need enrichment and an agility course is a fantastic way to fill that need,” she said. “It provides mental and physical stimulation so that the dogs maintain positive mental health. In a shelter environment, mental health can decline very quickly.”
All of the additional parts and supplies were provided to the shelter for upkeep and maintenance of the course. Killian-Gioia described it as “thrilling” to see the course finally come together and said the dogs at the shelter have already made great use out of it.
“Some of our dogs took to the equipment like fish to water,” she said. “Others needed a little more practice to get the hang of it, but overall the doggies love it!”
SAVE plans to also use the agility course to help raise money for the animals in the shelter. On Oct. 5, the shelter brought a few pieces from the course to its third annual Stroll for Strays fundraiser at Mercer County Park in West Windsor, where community members could bring their own dogs to try out the course.
That was not the first time the Chapman family worked with SAVE. Robert said he was inspired, in part, by his sister Elizabeth’s work with the shelter in January 2010. When Elizabeth, a Girl Scout in Troop 71452, had to plan a project for her Girl Scouts Silver Award, she decided to create 50 adoption bags for the shelter.
These bags are given to families adopting dogs and cats and include items such as homemade blankets, toys, dog and cat treats and informational pamphlets designed by Elizabeth.
“I felt really happy that I was helping animals that are in my community,” Elizabeth said. “It also helped the people adopting because they had something to go home with when they first got their dog or cat. I just felt proud that I could do something like that.”
Since Girl Scouts require the projects to be sustainable, Angela said Elizabeth made an extra effort to ensure that the donation bags would never run out.
“She took all of the instructions of what she made and put it into a binder so that if other groups wanted to get involved and volunteer they could make more of them on their own,” she said.
Elizabeth, who is now a 10th grader working towards her Girl Scout Gold Award, has recently been approved for a new project building four shelters for feral cats in Hamilton. She hopes to begin building by the end of October and have the project completed before December. The plan she has developed for the shelters is intricate.
“They’re going to be on stilts, so that other animals like raccoons and skunks can’t get into them, but the cats still can,” Elizabeth said. “They’re going to have a ledge so cats can hop into them. Instead of going in and walking straight into the shelter, they’re going to turn left and go down this hallway. Ultimately, what that does is protect the wind from coming in.”
Currently in the fundraising process of her project, Elizabeth said she looks forward to having the shelters completed before the winter. The shelters will be erected in the Chapman family’s backyard and will be transported to a plot in Hamilton with a high feral cat population.
“I just really love animals and I feel bad for what they go through when they don’t have a place to stay,” she said.
Between all the projects, the help Elizabeth and Robert have provided for the shelter and local animals is inspiring, according Killian-Gioia.
“Making their stay more enjoyable while they are here as well as providing a little extra to help them adjust to their new family when they get adopted is all so very important to all of the cats and dogs at SAVE,” she said. “Having their help takes a little of the burden off of the staff; our tasks seem less daunting when we have help from such a great group.”
Angela said she is proud of both her children, and suspects their work with helping animals will be a life-long commitment.
“We raised our kids to try and help give back to the community,” said Angela. “I’m glad to see that they want to do so much.”
Local businesses that are interested in donating materials to Elizabeth’s cat shelter project should contact Angela Chapman at smile612@aol.com.
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