Activity time: 20 minutes

Materials for Activity

• Visual materials, such as posters, from the national or your local Humane Society
• Optional: Computer with internet access
• Parental permission forms for all participants if you are going off-site

Preparation for Activity

• Go online to learn about the Humane Society of the United States. Click on Legislation and Laws for a list of current projects.
• Investigate the project ideas and educational resources provided by the Humane Society of the United States' youth education affiliate organization.
• Call the Humane Society nearest you. Contact a volunteer coordinator or a public relations person to learn how the Creating Home participants can help the organization's efforts to protect animals and/or place them in family homes.
• Obtain visual materials, such as a Humane Society poster, to help you explain to children what the Humane Society is and does. You may be able to request these from your local Humane Society. If you have access to a computer and internet in your meeting space, preview Humane Society websites and bookmark some to show your group. Note: Some web pages are geared toward children. Others display images of animals in pain or discomfort that may disturb or confuse children. Preview any web pages you plan to show.
• Decide whether you will do an activity within your meeting time and place - such as making posters, coloring flyers, or stuffing envelopes for a mailing - or an activity that involves an off-site experience. Before you make a plan to go off-site, secure commitments from parents or other congregants to provide transportation and supervision for the date/time you have in mind.
• If you will go off-site, distribute permission forms to the parents of all participants at least two weeks before the scheduled activity.

Description of Activity

Gather your group. Tell participants about the Humane Society, in your own words or these:

In 1954 the Humane Society became an organization in the United States that advocates for animals of all kinds. The Humane Society had roots in many different places around the nation, such as the Portsmouth Humane Society founded in the 1800s in New Hampshire.

Two Unitarians were members of their Humane Societies. One was James Freeman (1759-1835), the first preacher to identify himself as Unitarian. Ralph Waldo Emerson was also a member of a Humane Society. The present Humane Society of the United States brought all the local chapters together.