Episode 9: The Helping Paw with Clark Frazier

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
Hello, I'm Callie.
And I’m Sara.
And this is community Spotlight.
We are students in the College and Career
Studies program at UK.
This radio segment
will spotlight
different things in the local community
each week.
Thanks for listening.

(00:30):
Welcome to Community Spotlight.
My name is Sara Jones.
For this episode of Community Spotlight,
I am talking with Clark Frazier,
who helps coordinate
an organization
at UK called The Helping Paw.
It is a group that connects students
wanting to volunteer
at local animal shelters
or humane societies
and who are interested

(00:51):
in care and support of animals.
We will be learning more
about what The Helping Paw does
and how students might connect
with the organization
if they're interested.
Hello, Clark, how are you doing today?
Doing great,
Sara, And thank you for asking.
How are you doing?
I'm doing good.
Thank you for asking. That's good.
What local shelters do you work with?

(01:13):
So currently,
The Helping Paw works
with two local shelters.
We work with the Lexington
Humane Society,
which is right here in Lexington.
We also work
with the Scott County Humane Society,
which is located at Georgetown, Kentucky.
We're always looking for more shelters
to work with.
One of the shelters that we're in contact
with right now is called the Itty Bitty
Kitty Society.
They bring-
they mainly focus

(01:33):
on rescuing feral cats
and kittens and finding them a new home.
That sounds like good work
that you all are doing there.
And it's always fun to go in
and it's sweet to get attached
with the animals
because every time we go in
we’ll either see an old face, or see
a new one. Right.

(01:54):
All right.
Next question.
Are there any
specific types of animals
that you work with?
So the club specifically works
with dogs and cats.
And at the Lexington Humane Society,
we also work with like rabbits as well.
But primarily we focus
with dogs and cats.
What inspired you
to start working with animals?

(02:16):
To be honest, I can't think of a time
where I haven't loved animals.
Ever since I was a young boy.
I've always loved animals.
I've always loved my dogs and my cats.
We've had turtles, we've had iguanas,
we've had ferrets.
You kind of had everything under the sun.
My family would always buy me
like, animal books whenever I was younger.
Like those, like Zoo 101 books.

(02:36):
And my favorite show
as a kid was Dog 101.
And I'm currently a pre vet student
applying to vet school.
So I've always just loved animals
and I'm hoping to work
with them for my career.
What does a
typical day look like for you?
So it either starts or ends with work.
But, so currently I work two jobs,

(02:58):
so I'll normally start the morning
going straight down
to Versailles, Kentucky,
where I assist in
some research projects with cattle.
We'll just looking at some sort
of ruminant digestion.
Then I'll go to my classes
and then after we’ll
normally have an event,
normally will be from 4 to 5 p.m.
So we'll go to either the Lexington
Humane Society and Scott
County Humane Society,

(03:20):
go in, do general cleaning, walk the dogs,
you know,
give them food and water
and just kind of help them
with anything they need.
If they do have an event,
we'll go and help them
with that later that day.
But if I don't have any events
with the Lexington or Scott
County Humane Society,
I also work at the vet clinic down in

(03:40):
Winchester, Kentucky,
called the Clark County
Veterinary Clinic,
where I work as a vet assistant down there.
But other than that,
I spend my time at the library.
All right.
What kind of
events do you have
and how often do you have them?
So currently
we only have once a week
for volunteering events
where we get a small group of

(04:01):
students, around 8 to 10,
to go to
either the Scott County
or Lexington Humane Society.
And like I said,
we'll just help them with anything
they need.
We are looking to do more events
kind of around like midterms or finals.
We're hoping to do like a de-stress day
that is in the works right now.
We're hoping to do like a puppy or kitten yoga,
or just like a day-

(04:22):
a day of de-stress
right before finals or midterm exams.
What are some ways
that people can get involved
with local organizations
that help animals?
Well,
for The Helping Paw,
you can just go to our BBNvolved page.
Just look at The Helping Paw. There
you can click on our group
me and join there.

(04:43):
We'll always announce our upcoming events
and in our group meeting,
that's where you can sign up
for any of our events
for either
the Scott County or Lexington
Humane societies.
Another way to get involved is, one,
you can always just go to their websites
personally and sign up to volunteer.
If you don't have the time to volunteer,
the Lexington Humane Society
and Scott County Humane Societies

(05:03):
are always hosting events. On March 8,
the Lexington Humane Society
will be hosting their annual Tails
and Ales event.
It'll be a night of drinks, music
and just great fun.
It was amazing last year,
and I know it's going to be amazing again
this year.
So we'll be starting,
it'll be March 8th, starting about
5pm.

(05:24):
I know that sometimes people
care a lot for animals
and they want to do something
to be involved,
but they may or may not be able
to always go into the shelter, or,
foster an animal or things like that.
And I'm curious
if there are
other ways for people to help out,
even when they can't go in there
in person.
There are some
some things that you can do.

(05:44):
One, if you don't have the time
and you do have excess money
that you can spend.
They always take
donations. They’re always in
need of food or toys. Like dry dog food
or dry cat food.
They always will take. Same thing
with toys or banding
and you can always
go on the Lexington
Humane Society or the Scott
County Humane Society websites,
and they'll have a list of things

(06:05):
that they're
they need more
or things that they'll need less of.
And if you can't really spend
a lot of money,
you can always go to their events.
Like I was saying on March 8th
this year,
Lexington Humane Society is going to be
hosting their Tails and Ales event.
All the proceeds of that
will be going to the Lexington
Humane Society
to help them with future adoption events

(06:26):
and just future adoptions in general.
For anyone
listening who might want to get involved
with The Helping Paw,
what is the
best way to contact
or find out more information?
Like I said, the best way to get in
contact with us
is either going straight
to our BBNvolved page
and joining our GroupMe,
or you can always reach out to me
through my personal email,

(06:47):
which is [e-mail].
Or email The Helping Paw’s email
with any questions.
And that's [e-mail]
Clark,
thank you so much
for talking with me today.
Of course,
and thank you so much for having me.
It always feels nice
to try and get more people into the club

(07:08):
so we can help more dogs and cats.
This has been a conversation
with Clark Frazier,
who coordinates a student group at UK
called The Helping Paw.
My name is Sara Jones.
This has been another episode
of Community Spotlight.
Thank you so much for listening.
Thank you so much.

(07:28):
This has been Community Spotlight.
Thanks for listening.