MURRAY – During the summer of 2020, the Calloway County Animal Shelter staff recognized a great need. Animal Shelter Manager Darla Jackson explained that, because of COVID, the shelter was not open to the public, but the staff wanted to continue doing adoptions. Since they were not allowed to let the public enter the building, the workaround was to do them outdoors. The problem was there was nowhere to go outside to stay out of rain or seek shade on hot summer days. What the shelter needed was a pavilion, but where they would get the funds to do that, they did not know.
That August, the community was grieving in the wake of the tragic death of Murray native Clay Cornelison. His family, seeing an opportunity to help an organization so near and dear to Cornelison’s heart, requested that expressions of sympathy be made to the animal shelter.
“Every pet we ever had came from the shelter,” Cornelison’s mother, Gale Broach Sharp, said. “He would go there at times and just hang out with them. So, it was such an easy decision for us as a family. As horrible as his death was and traumatizing to us, we knew, without a doubt, it’s what Clay would want. Any kind of memorial or recognition for him or for our family, we knew that’s where we wanted it to go.”
“The family requested that donations be given to the animal shelter,” Jackson said. “Then we had so many family and friends calling to say, ‘I want to make a donation in memory of Clay. How would you like me to write that check out?’ I said, ‘Actually, right now, we would love to have some type of an outdoor structure because of the whole COVID thing. I checked with the family and said, ‘This is what we’d like to do – we would like to take all of the donations in memory of your son and put in a pavilion.’”
“The beauty of the pavilion is it allowed for people to visit and hang out with dogs or cats before they chose one,” Sharp said. “They checked with us (to see) if that would be OK, and we were like, ‘Oh, yeah, this is perfect!’”
“We had so many donations; people just filled us with donations,” Jackson said. In fact, the shelter received more than $6,000 in donations in honor of Cornelison. They were not only able to build the pavilion and purchase the marble plaque that bears Cornelison’s name, but also deposit more than $1,000 in the shelter’s medical fund, which can include spay/neuter, microchip and vaccinate the animals.
“We use it daily,” Jackson said. “We started as soon as it was built, and we’ve continued to use it. We do intakes out there; we do adoptions out there. People can come and hold animals and sit out there now. It’s a place to sit, talk, do a meet and greet (with the animal), fill out an application. So, it’s still used daily. It’s a nice place to go. It’s been a great asset to the shelter.”
Sharp noted that a by-product of requesting expressions of sympathy go to the shelter is that it brought more attention to the shelter and what their specific needs are. “There’s a difference between the Humane Society and the shelter - I know they kind of work hand-in-hand – but it was the shelter that was so important to Clay.”
The shelter is always in need of cleaning supplies, particularly bleach and laundry detergent. Leashes and collars are also very helpful. The greatest need right now is money to replenish the shelter’s medical fund. Jackson said those funds have been completely depleted.
“Right now, we have zero flea control,” Jackson said. “We can give them a bath, but that’s all we can do because we have no flea control. So, if somebody wanted to donate some flea control, it is really needed. We’ll use the generics that you can buy – Pet Armor, it’s a little cheaper. On our Facebook page (@murraycallowaycountyanimalshelter), we actually put pictures of what we need. We have 59 animals in our care – some of them are in foster homes, not here (in the shelter) – imagine putting flea control on 59 animals a month.
“Some people like to go buy it themselves. If they want, they can stop by and say they want to make a donation to the medical fund. That medical fund helps spay/neuters, helps buy vaccines; we’re putting a microchip in, so every animal that gets adopted or gets reclaimed from here, we’re putting a $10 microchip in them. So, that would help pay for the microchips. But, right now, it’s the flea control.”
“Clay had the most beautiful laugh and smile,” Sharp said. “He’s the one that made everybody happy and laugh. Wherever he was, people were laughing, but the big, bear-hug kind of guy, too. He would just be thrilled that this was happening, not for himself, just for the animals. It’s been a wonderful experience for us. It has given something back to the community in honor of him, so it has made us happy.”
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