On April 19, Blackburn College’s Circle K International (CKI) club held a DIY dog toy event. Hoping to bring awareness to both CKI and shelter dogs, President Christina Sanderson and Service Chair Austin Ives wants the success of this event to lead to another in the future. “As an organization, we have an annual Columbus Day picnic or Summer Social. Since that project is always so successful, we brought the socialness to the Blackburn Campus,” said Ives. “It’s both easy, fun and free to participate,” he added. CKI wanted to do something that was unique, and another club wouldn’t think of – DIY dog toys!
The DIY dog toy event was held in the ADRS, off of Ding, from seven to eight in the evening. The t-shirts were all anonymously donated. The event itself was a good stress reliever and had two stations: one for cutting the tee shirts and one for braiding the pieces together to get a rope toy. Members Austin Ives, Christina Sanderson, Alyssa Riegel, Conner Doolen, Rylee Wilson, Madelynn Sneed, Carlie Trybon, Cheyenne Wilson and Jason Wasson were all working hard to make rope toys for dogs. CKI managed to make around 70 braided dog toys by the end of the event.
Hoping to bring happiness to dogs waiting in forever homes, Ives stated that the toys that are made will go to one local animal shelter. Ives also added that CKI tries to do an event like this at least once per semester. He also stated that if the campus community has an idea, or multiple ideas, for events like this one, to contact Christina Sanderson at christina.sanderson@blackburn.edu or himself at austin.ives@blackburn.edu.