By Airiel Foster

The SPCA has youth volunteer programs throughout the United States at most of their SPCA centers. With guidance , It is a chance for kids to give love and care to animals who have had many things taken away from them such as their homes, safety and sometimes their health. Many were discarded like everyday trash on the streets. You learn to help these animals smile, play and most of all trust humans again.

Many times your school with give you credits for your volunteer work. My school, William L. Sayre High School in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania requires all its seniors to do community service work in order to graduate and receive their high school diploma.

It can take up to six months to a year to gain an animal's trust at a shelter. Many of the animals will become more friendly, more active and more affectionate with volunteer care. You can usually see a difference, but it is a gradual process.

My name is Airiel Foster. I am 17 years old and I decided to volunteer at the PSPCA (The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. My family got our cat, Grace , at the PSPCA and she has been a fun and stubborn and loving addition to our home.

At our volunteer orientation class at the PSCPA, we met our new Volunteer Coordinator, Mrs. Jennifer Johnston , and Ms. Claribel, another employee at the organization. Both women showed us the rules and regulations of volunteering at an animal shelter. I

As a volunteer at the PSPCA you get to do fun things like how to make dog treats with peanut butter, oatmeal (uncooked of course), and cinnamon. It's simple! All we had to do was mix the three Ingredients together and throw them in the freezer.

Making cat treats with toilet tissue rolls, catnip and cat treats was a new experience for me. All we had to do was fold one end of the toilet tissue roles, put in a pinch of Catnip and place a small amount of cat snacks inside. Then we folded the other end of the roll.

by Olivia McConnell

I love science and I love fossils.  My name is Olivia McConnell and I am eight years old and live in South Carolina.

Fossils tell us a lot about our past and how things lived.  I want to be an Egyptologist when I grow up.  I would like to move to Egypt and work with other archeologists digging up ancient tombs and artifacts.

I am in third grade and back in October 2013 my family and I were eating at a restaurant called "The Chat-N-Chew."  there is a menu at the Chat-N-Chew with all of the South Carolina state symbols...and I leaned every single one.  I think I can name every state symbol and emblem. I think they are very neat.

When I looked at the South Carolina state symbols I realized I didn't see a state fossil, and I didn't understand why.  I do love fossils so I started doing some research.  I discovered in my fossil books that the first vertebrae fossil in North America was found in my state in 1725.  That was a huge fossil find!