From Tuesday through Friday, three App State Greek life organizations held a volunteer event for Watauga Humane Society to help with daily operations and restoration efforts after Hurricane Helene.

Johnny Vo is a sophomore political science major and Beta Theta Pi’s vice president of programming. He said he was inspired to take a different approach and go directly to the source to help and volunteer rather than organizing only a fundraiser on campus. 

Beta Theta Pi collaborated with sororities Kappa Delta and Sigma Kappa to organize and conduct the fundraiser. The students volunteered at Watauga Humane Society, and Vo said the volunteer project aimed to help with shelter maintenance, clearing walking trails, cleaning kennels, walking and feeding pets.

Vo said after seeing the impact Hurricane Helene had on the area, he wanted to ensure animals and lost pets were not forgotten after the storm.

“You’re worrying about your own health,” he said. “You’re worrying about your friend’s health.”

Vo said the fraternity hopes to host fundraising events for the humane society in the future.

The event allowed members of the fraternity and sororities to sign up for time slots from 1-3:30 p.m. each day to volunteer. Maggie Kennelly, a freshman management major who recently joined Kappa Delta, said Beta Theta Pi reached out to her asking if she and her sorority wanted to be involved in the event. She said that soon, all the available volunteer time slots were filled, and members were asking if additional slots could be added.

In the past, Kennelly said her organization hosted an event called “Dogs and Donuts” which aimed to connect students with adoptable dogs and raise money. She wanted to extend help to the local humane society by participating in the volunteering event.

“That’s a lot of work on the workers,” she said.

Kennelly said she enjoys volunteer work, which she has done for several years.

“I just believe that giving back to our community is such an important thing,” she said. “We’re all just people. We’re all in this world together, we got to find a way to help each other out sometimes.”

Vo said the event was sponsored by Celsius, who provided drinks to student volunteers.