High School Construction Class Builds Homes For Hundreds Of Pets

This high school teacher is taking home construction to the dog house–quite literally.

Barry Stewart is a construction instructor and pet lover who has been teaching his students a valuable trade and lesson in compassion by having them design and build hundreds of houses for dogs and feral cats. All of houses made by the students in class and then donated to pet shelters and needy families.

It began in 2002 when Stewart worked as a shop teacher at the Career Center in North Carolina and sought an easy but effective project that would give students hands-on experience. By chance, he ran across Forsyth County Animal Control’s Houses for Hounds program, which coordinates with multiple animal welfare groups to provide free dog houses to lower income residents in the area.

Stewart came to the conclusion that a pet house is simply a smaller version of a human house and would therefore be a good tool for teaching his students how to construct a structure:

Over the years, Stewart estimates he and his students have constructed over 600 dog houses and 110 homes for feral cats, all of which have been donated to needy families.

He lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he only moved very recently. Since then, he has brought his work to the sunshine state and continued to construct homes for these underprivileged animals. Stewart works at Englewood High School and donates pet homes to local animal welfare nonprofits, including Friends of Jacksonville Animals and Epic Animals Outreach. They’ve recently added feeding stations to their building repertoire.

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[Featured Image Credit: Friends of Jacksonville via Facebook]

High School Construction Class Builds Homes For Hundreds Of Pets is an article from: LifeDaily