Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to his new home, with the help of Anna’s Kindness volunteers.
Twenty-three middle school students from four different Ann Arbor schools spent Sunday afternoon working at Starry Skies horse rescue and sanctuary, a volunteer project that included relocating more than 3 dozen chickens to their newly built coop located in a building adjacent to the main barn.
It was quite a sight, watching the student volunteers try and catch and corner the chickens in their old pen, and then cradle them carefully from the barn to the coop in what looked like a chicken parade.
Helping the chicken cross the road was just one of many chores for the students.
A group of Clague and Forsythe middle school students started their afternoon trying to replace and repair the fencing that the donkeys had bent or knocked out. The girls managed to fix several pieces before being called to track down a goat which had ‘escaped’ the pen and was on the loose in the driveway.
Another group of Slauson and Forsythe students were tasked with cleaning out the pig pen, which is where they got to meet Pilot. Pilot, a baby pig compared with his 400-pound roommates, had been found at the Pilot Truck Stop, where he was running around the parking lot after having apparently escaped from a truck carrying a load of pigs. Considering the truck may have been those pigs’ final trip, Pilot could have just as easily been called Lucky. He will now get to live out his life at Starry Skies.
The final group, comprised of students from STEAM and Forsythe middle schools, moved hay bales from inside one horse stall and then took special ‘hay cake’ out to the horses in the pens, who were there ready to devour the treat.
The three groups came together to not only move the chickens, but then headed to the back of the ranch, wading through the mud in order to groom the horses and their foals. The volunteers paid special attention to removing the burrs which were stuck in the the horses’ fur and their manes.
It was the largest Anna’s Kindness volunteer group to date, and wouldn’t have been possible without the help of adult volunteers Kate, Cathy, and Mary-Margaret. Thanks to Starry Skies’ Tricia and Bridget for coordinating a tremendous opportunity for these students.
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