Kitty Kat Kar Wash brings suds, smiles and donations

May 13—The parking lot at 700 Water Street was filled with sudsy buckets, sponges, and middle schoolers scrubbing cars until they shined on Wednesday.

"I didn't expect much when I came here, but when I actually got here it was really, really fun," Logansport Junior High School student Saylor McClain said. "It's kind of chaotic, but it's really fun and everyone's working really hard."

Students from the Logansport Junior High School's FFA teamed up with the Cass County Humane Society to host the Kitty Kat Car Wash on May 11. The fundraiser will help pay for volunteers to trap, neuter and release the county's stray cats.

"The goal for today is to raise money so we can help control the population (of stray cats) in the city," FFA faculty adviser Emily DuVall said. "That way, we don't become overrun with cats here."

The group is technically an agriculture organization, but Duvall said it is more than that. The letters in FFA stand for future farmers of America, but the organization changed its official name to National FFA Organization in 1988 to encourage more people to join.

"Everyone thought you had to be a farmer to be in FFA," DuVall said. " ...The vast majority of Americans do still think that's what it stands for, but agriculture is so much more than farming."

Duvall said kids do not need to be farmers or even have knowledge about agriculture to be in the group. Her main goal is to help her students make a difference in the community. The Logansport FFA has not been active for very long, but the kids are eager to volunteer.

"We originally got involved with the Humane Society because we're a brand new chapter and we really want to do community service for the Logansport community," Duvall said. "Animals just seemed to be a natural fit with FFA. A lot of students loved the smaller animals like the dogs and cats because that's what they've known up to this point in their lives."

Some students who volunteered at the fundraiser have developed a more personal connection with the Cass County Humane Society.

"I kind of have a special bond with the humane society," student Yoslen Santana said. "My dog recently ran away. She passed away. (This) allowed me to have closure, so I just wanted to help out."

Yoslen said the work was pretty easy and he was having a lot of fun. When asked what it was like to work at the Kitty Kat Kar Wash, he responded, "Wet. It's really wet."

The students were enthusiastic to scrub, rinse and dry the vehicles filing through the Humane Society's parking lot. Some students used blue, oval-shaped sponges to wipe tire rims in a circular motion. Others wadded large yellow sponges in their hands to scrub at the vehicles' hoods and side doors.

After a thorough cleaning, the cars were rinsed by students wielding garden hoses. More students with towels affixed to long squeegees waited to dry the cars after all the suds were washed away.

Duval and Cass County Humane Society Executive Director Lisa Terry monitored their progress and inspected each car after they were rinsed. If they deemed a vehicle unsatisfactory, students were pulled from another station to redo the job.

"The weather's been beautiful. The kids have been great washing the cars," parent Autumn Vail said. "We've got a little comedian around here somewhere who's got a couple good knock-knock jokes."

Vail parked her car and watched as her daughter and the other FFA members worked.

"So far they're doing a good job," she said. "They seem to be scrubbing off all the bugs on the front."

Vail was not the only person impressed by the fundraiser.

"I thought this was a wonderful thing for these kids to do," Logansport resident Kathy Logan said. "I love anything to do with animals, so if I'm going to help out animals, I'm going to come to these. And my car was dirty."

Logan heard about the event on the community calendar. She has a soft spot for the Cass County Humane Society because that is where she adopted her cat Bentley from four years ago. She also said she was impressed by the students' hard work.

"I'm proud of them," she said. "I don't know them, but I just think any time youth get involved in doing work, it's great. I want to support them when I can."

Many other community members attended the fundraiser to support the humane society. Logansport Common Council member Scott Peattie said getting his truck washed was a bonus.

"It was awesome," he said. "I get my truck cleaned and can make a contribution to the humane society. I'm a big animal lover."

The Kitty Kat Kar Wash is not the only way the students are helping the Humane Society. Terry mentioned that they have also come into the shelter on recent Thursdays to help with additional cleaning.

The FFA has not been able to volunteer at the humane society as frequently as the group would like since the building is undergoing construction, but Terry said the students' volunteer work is preparing them to become strong leaders.

"You're building future volunteers, future staff members, future board members," Terry said. "All of these kids do care about animals. They've all come on Thursdays. They go through and help clean out the cat boxes and feed the cats and hold the kitties. They're into it."

She said the humane society was extremely grateful for the students' help and stressed how important fundraisers are to keep the shelter running.

"We have as many fundraisers as we possibly can because we never, ever, ever can pay all of our bills," she said.

Almost all of the humane society's budget comes from fundraisers and donations. DuVall said that it is not easy for the humane society to serve the community, so she is happy to help the community give back to the humane society.

"We know that it takes a lot to run a humane society, especially when they don't receive any taxpayer funding, so we wanted to help out," she said. "... We just want the community to know that we're here to help. It helps grown our chapter as well, because they get involved in the community."

Student Morgan Vail said she was grateful for the opportunity to volunteer. She and her friends enjoyed playing in the water in between car washes.

"The humane society is really nice for letting us help them out," she said. "We appreciate the fact that we can have fun here and spend our day helping."