[1]For six months now, Blue Cross is the new home for 20 youngsters who visit the centre daily to clean the place, feed the birds and even help labourers at the construction site inside the premises.
Thanks to social networking site, Facebook, these young people have raised Rs6 lakh for construction of an aviary and shelter for small animals on the Blue Cross campus.
“It all started one fine day when we named our group as Spaaak. Soon, our friends’ friends and their friends joined the group and we have around 100 members now. Our aim is to do social service and we began by sponsoring food for orphanages and then we started volunteering for Blue Cross,” said Pooja S, a fourth year student of NIFT.
When 20 members of Spaaak took up volunteering, they came to know that a shelter was being planned for small animals and the total cost of construction was around Rs8 lakh.
Dawn Williams, General Manager of Blue Cross of India said, “At first these students were little sceptical whether they would be able to raise such a huge amount. But they did raise Rs6 lakh and to save on labour charges they come here daily to assist the workers. They take bricks, cement and sand to the first floor where the construction work is going on. This is the first group of students to volunteer on a regular basis.”
“We also pooled money out of our pockets and by putting up stalls in colleges and selling T-shirts and badges among other items,” said team leader Surya.
A second year B.Tech student, Roshan, said they were happy to work together with friends. “After
college hours and on week- ends we come here and do whatever we can. After the completion of the aviary we will decide our next project,” he said.
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