Man’s Best Friend receives blessing

Man's Best Friend, a new club on Gonzaga's campus that aims to provide assistance to animal shelters and help students maintain a connection to their pets, provided a pet blessing for a group of dogs outside Crosby on Saturday, Oct. 1.

The blessing was the first major event for the club, which was approved by GSBA over the summer. Father Steve Dublinski led a group of students in a song by St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals. Then he sprinkled holy water on the group of animals as students held up cellphones with pictures of their pets on them.

Since the Gonzaga student handbook states that students living on campus are only allowed to have "harmless fish," there was a distinct lack of living, breathing pets at the blessing. The absence of pets on campus was part of what gave club president Allison Fina the idea for Man's Best Friend.

"A lot of us on campus are really missing our pets," she said. "We need to continue that relationship, no matter how far away we are."

The club seeks to instill in others a thirst for justice against animal cruelty and a passion for pets, according to Fina, a sophomore. Their hope is to interact as much as possible with local humane societies and promote animal adoption. Fundraisers are planned throughout the year to raise money for shelters in the area that need funds to pay for supplies.

When choosing an animal shelter to partner with, Man's Best Friend created a list of criteria to consider. Location was very important so that students could have the option of volunteering. Walking or biking distance was preferred. After researching, Fina found that SpokAnimal had an excellent reputation in the community for treating animals with kindness. She pointed out that the shelter has not euthanized any healthy dogs in over five years.

"We are very fortunate to work with such a great organization like SpokAnimal," she said.

Fina said she expects fundraisers throughout the rest of the semester to experience the same success as the blessing of the pets. Club members Maryann Schwartzkopf and Olivia Schuele are planning a unique event that they hope will raise awareness of the club — a '70s themed "Disco for the Dogs" dance to be held sometime in February.

"All of the dances Gonzaga does are kind of the same," Schwartzkopf said. "Most dances here do modern music — I thought it would be cool to do something different."

Fina said that the most important thing the club wants to do is "find students a way to get that healing connection [with pets]." She had a couple of ambitious ideas to accomplish that goal. "We're looking into having dogs come in from shelters during finals week and allowing students to play with them," she said.

Man's Best Friend's events should be well attended, since 233 people signed up at the club fair earlier in the year —  though Fina estimates less than 100 will stick with the club and volunteer with SpokAnimal on a regular basis.

For students who want to support Man's Best Friend, the club will be selling cookies outside Crosby every other Thursday. All money earned will go to SpokAnimal.

Man's Best Friend is having its first meeting tonight at 7 p.m. in Wolff Auditorium.The meeting is open to anyone interested in joining the club.

"We need people who are committed to animals and are hardworking in the club so work and ideas can flow equally," Fina said.

"If humans can learn to love one another the way we love our animals, then the world would be a better place."