During the Coffee Talk in the Union Underground, the Helping Hands Humane Society brought their pet ambassadors to Washburn. This gave students a chance to pet and snuggle with dogs and cats giving them a chance to unwind a bit.

 “It’s a way for students who are missing their pets at home to get a little time with some puppies,” said Katie Jesseph, Volunteer & Off-Site Coordinator.

This Coffee Talk was well represented by many different Washburn students. The pet ambassadors had their paws full working the crowd and saying hi to everyone there. The Helping Hands Humane Society pet ambassadors come to Washburn every success week and where thrilled to come today as well. Helping Hands Humane Society uses each event to educate about animals as well and to help promote volunteers.

“But we also try to use this as an educational opportunity and let them know they can volunteer because if they would like to,” said Emi Griess, MA the Communications Coordinator for the Helping Hands Humane Society. 

There are plenty of opportunities to volunteer and the process to apply is simple.

“There is an application on our website that anybody can fill out whether it’s student, somebody from the community, if you submit that application, you’ll get an email with instructions on how to sign up for a volunteer orientation,” said Griess.

Griess was also asked about internships as it is a component of most degree plans here at Washburn.

“We’ve had a couple of students do internships we don’t have a structure in place for that to regularly happen, so if somebody is willing to do the work coming up with what type of internship they need, we can sit down and talk with them,” said Griess.

The Helping Hands Humane Society website is http://www.hhhstopeka.org/.