In January, junior Magda Harden made a joke about starting an organization where students could meet and walk their dogs together, as well as participate in various other activities. Shorty afterwards, the “Puppy Pals” club obtained a sponsor and became an official club that is now open to all students.

“Magda is the one who started it [the club] at first. It all started off like it was a joke, then everyone showed enough interest,” junior Reilly Hanson said. “Then she took it to Mrs. Castellano, then a couple other teachers. Then it went to Mr. Mehlbrech, so he liked it.”

Once the club was approved by Mehlbrech, officers were then elected and group activities were then planned.

“I’m the secretary of puppy pals club, so I help with all the documents and I help Magda coordinate with everything and be with people basically. But I think it’s a really cool club. I love dogs and I love people,” junior Emily Morales said. “I like how we bring them together; it’s a really cool thing for me. We get to know new people through animals, and it’s cool because you can help them at the same time.”

This organization then had their first meeting on January 12, but students are still able to join the club if they would like, according to sophomore Ana Flores.

“Puppy Pals is a club where if you love dogs, or if you are an animal lover, you can come together and just hang out and bond with each other. You can volunteer at an animal shelter and it’s a great opportunity to know how…animals are, really,” sophomore Ana Flores said.

The students that get together not only volunteer at the animal shelter and animal defense league, but they also meet up at local parks a few times a month to walk their dogs together.

“You get to just have fun because we went to the dog park a few days ago and I got to know other people. You get to know other dogs and the dogs get to play around, because of their energy. Because some dogs like mine don’t really have the opportunity to go out and play so she got to play out and have fun,” Flores said.

If you would like to know more information about upcoming events and meetings, you can follow Puppy Pals on Twitter @JHSPuppypals, on Edmodo with the code: “pgs22x”, and/or Remind 101 @jhspp.