9-Year Old Raises $1300 for rural Animal Shelter

Jordan (9) raise $1304 for Harnett County Animal Shelter for a school project — the assignment came from her 3rd grade social studies teacher, who asked her students to do a community service project of their choosing by Oct. 3.

In a small suburb of Raleigh, NC, 9-year-old Jordan committed to raise money to help Harnett County Animal Shelter, a kill shelter that’s staff has been working diligently to change the conditions and outlook for the animals that come through its doors. Jordan dedicated hours and hours to baking and selling her wares through a bake sale and raised more than $1300.

Jordan and her family rescued Daisy, pictured, in February from Harnett County Animal Shelter.

The Harnett County Animal Shelter manager, Eileen Beeson and her dedicated staff are reaching out to the community in many ways to make changes at Harnett County, and Jordan’s donation is a huge help, Beeson said. Like many rural areas in North Carolina, budget is very limiting. And these shelters are often heavily reliant on donations — food, medical supplies, cat litter and more. So when Jordan was 7 years old and visited the shelter to help a local animal rescue move some cats out of the facility (with her family), she was moved by the poor conditions and small spaces dedicated to the animals. Beeson has since been made the shelter manager and is working hard to better those conditions.

And because Jordan loves to bake, she decided to have a bake sale, with all proceeds going to Harnett County Animal Shelter. Her initial goal was to raise $300 to help the shelter buy a new bunny hutch or a dog waste station. An animal-loving anonymous donor agreed to match any funds Jordan raised. Jordan asked family and friends to donate boxed cake mixes and brownies to help defer some of the costs. Her plan was do have a bake sale during a neighborhood yard sale that brings in a lot of outside traffic, but Hurricane Florence hit NC and it was postponed. During the hurricane, Jordan and her family (including her 7-year-old sister) baked seven boxes of brownies and sold them to neighbors who were stuck inside due to the storm. She raised $110 just baking the brownies during Florence.

Jordan made this strawberry filled and decorated cake as part of her sale.

The following week Jordan spent days baking cakes, cookies, brownies and cupcakes to sell. And Saturday morning she got up early and baked cinnamon rolls and muffins to sell. That afternoon, she sold the rest of her baked goods. All told, she raised $465. This wasn’t good enough for Jordan. She pushed harder, committing to bake more to raise an even $500. When she reached out to people, via her mother’s facebook account, about $180 more came in via check, cash and paypal payments — giving her a total of $652. With the promised match, Jordan raised $1304.

Jordan raised enough to buy Harnett County the bunny hutch, a doggie waste station and help the shelter raise the remaining capital to commission a carpenter to build cat kennels to replace the 22 year old housing they currently have. There was money left over, and Jordan intends to buy the shelter a microchip scanner, a dog bed and some water buckets with it.

Harnett County Animal Shelter has an amazon wishlist for those interested in donating directly to the shelter to help better the lives of the animals in their care.