View photos from Utah

11 students headed to the wide open spaces of the wild West for spring break to do community service at the Best Friends Animal Shelter in Kanab, Utah. Best Friends is the largest no-kill animal shelter in the country and cares for all sorts of homeless and abused animals. The shelter is located in beautiful southern Utah, within a few hours drive of several spectacular national parks.

The Eckerd group did a variety of service during the week. During our work time, we split our group into two teams and rotated around to the various areas of the shelter. Throughout the week we fed horses, cleaned cat living areas, socialized dogs, scooped lots of poop in the rabbit shelter and also visited the bird area as well as the Best Friends organic garden.

The Utah participants were a fantastic group and we enjoyed getting to know each other as we worked together and also shared the experience of all sleeping on the floor of one room in a church, cooking food each night, and eating around a common table.

The trip out West wasn't all work. We also took plenty of time to visit the spectacular Zion National Park, Dixie National Forest, Bryce Canyon National Forest, Kaibab National Forest, the Grand Canyon National Park, the Hoover Dam (a group favorite), and the City of Sin--Las Vegas.

Brian MacHarg
Director of Service Learning

Group participants:

Coral Bass
Jillian Bobay
Audrey Copeland
Lauren Fisher
Emily Gardner
Tina Irwin
Janel Jankowski
Andrea Krzystan
Luke Mowbray
Amber Nash
Kate Page

View photos from Utah