The Daily Record
Shelter Could Use More Volunteers Like Her
To volunteer, go to: http://www.harnett.org/ac/ and click: Policies/Applications.
By SHAUN SAVARESE Of The Record Staff
The Harnett County Animal Shelter in Lillington is at capacity and harboring 53 dogs and 60 cats. The facility is forced to turn away strays. Friday afternoon at 1100 McKay Place was a fracas, at noon, a line, 10 cars long, formed in front of the shelter’s fence and gate. An SUV stuffed with kittens and a station wagon stacked with dogs, idled outside the entrance awaiting the 1 p.m. opening.
Eager adopting families could be allowed access sooner; said Harnett County Animal Services Program Manager Steve Berube, if more people volunteered. Mr. Berube said he has a pile of more than 100 volunteer applications, but just one active volunteer.
That volunteer is Kaela McCoy, 21, of Rocky Point. Miss Mc-Coy is not merely an active volunteer … she has spent two hours, every Friday for the past 17 months, more than 100 miles from her Wilmington-area home, comforting anxious animals for free.
She cleans puppy pens, walks dogs her own weight and soothes those scared by the sounds of the shelter, doing it all with an uplifting attitude.
“It’s my favorite place to be,” the Campbell University graphic design and studio art major said through a smile.
Miss McCoy, a senior at Campbell University, hopes to start a career as an artist after graduation. She has maintained a 3.8 GPA and an academic scholarship, while managing to have tallied more than 500 community service hours since February 2015.
In addition to being former club softball president, a marketing assistant for the study abroad program and the graphic design understudy, she is increasing her volunteer schedule to two days a week in September.
“This is my last summer, so I am trying to spend as much time here as possible,” she said. “I would be here every day if I could.” As a child climbing magnolia trees on her grandfather’s farm, she dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. Born in Panama City, Fla., she nurtured a love of all animals, domestic and wild.
Her father was in the U.S. Air Force and his career brought the family to North Carolina.
Both of her parents are proud of the work she is doing here in Harnett County.
“They are supportive, because they know it makes me really happy,” she said.
Her grandfather, Phillip Mc-Coy owned a hog farm in New See Volunteer, Page 3
Campbell University senior art major, Kaela McCoy, 21, of Rocky Point is stressing over life after college, but not for the regular reasons. ‘I don’t know what I am going to do without them,’ she said about the affectionate animals she’s loved for more than a year. ‘Honestly, I can’t leave. It’s really hard for me to think about it.’ She is pictured here with Cash, a 1-year-old Labrador mix, in front of one of three full-color murals she painted in Hthe arnett County Animal Services’ lobby.
Daily Record Photo/Shaun Savarese Volunteer
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Bern where she would go to be the “little country girl,” known for wrapping garden snakes around her neck.
She played softball in high school, as shortstop at High Heide Trask and didn’t begin painting until after graduation, at age 17.
She spoke highly of the teaching staff and her peers at Campbell University.
“The professors are always there for you, no matter what,” she said.
“They’re all very nice,” she also said of her peers. “They are God centered and that’s part of the reason I chose the school … to grow my relationship with God.”
The moment that she became invested in the shelter, its people and its animals, was after the death of her grandfather.
She remembers Mr. McCoy as a sweet, gentle man who ignited her passion for animals with his beagles on the Cove City farm.
Mr. McCoy suffered from Alzheimers and passed away in November.
He lived with Miss McKoy and her family in Rocky Point before his passing. She spent every day with him before he died.
As her contributions continue to increase adoption rates and the overall efficiency of the shelter, Miss McCoy has also made the ultimate contribution by giving a handful of Harnett County Animal Shelter dogs their forever homes.
She adopted a 10-year-old Maltese named Paw Simon. He lives in Rocky Point with her mother, Tammy McCoy, and she keeps a 2-year-old female setter mix, named Lilly, at her apartment in Lillington while school is in session.
Mentoring under professional painter and muralist, Randy McLean, Miss McCoy has begun preparing for her senior art exhibition this fall.
When she started to paint the cat and dog murals now in the lobby of the Harnett County Animal Shelter, she first had to clean and scrub the walls.
She then labored over her first mural for a week, stopping once to wipe off a stray spot … when all of her art came off the wall at once.
“I realized that I had painted latex over oil,” she laughed.
One of the staff members, Donna Smith, chipped in and helped her peel off all of the oilbased paint so she could finish her project.
“Those people are like my family,” she said. “I would do anything in the world for them.
“It bothers me a lot because they get a bad wrap. People don’t understand because it’s easy for them to criticizes while they are sitting on the outside,” she said of the staff. “They don’t know what they go through, what they do every single day. They work their butts off and they love the animals.”
Miss McCoy’s 21st birthday was in mid-July and the team at Harnett County Animal Shelter bought her a birthday card, presents and a cake to celebrate.
“(Mr. Berube) is a funny guy,” she said. “He’s always cracking jokes and is fun to be around. Miss Regina is like the powerhouse of this place. I just think the absolute world of her. Everbody is so nice.”
Harnett County Animal Services staff, from left, Municipal Officer Glenn Fipps, volunteer Kaela Mc-Coy, shelter mascot Cash, shelter attendant Regina Stone, shelter attendant LeeAnn Wagstaff, parttime shelter attendant Jennifer Dalton and Program Manager Steve Berube.
Daily Record Photo/Shaun Savarese
