Far Away Friends changed course this year, shifting their focus from the DRHS sister school in Uganda to local community support for “no-kill” animal shelters in Littleton, Colorado. As such, the club has changed its name from “Far Away Friends” to “Fluffy Buddies” to avoid confusion.
The reason for this shift is mainly the sudden lack of communication the club began to experience in October of 2024. The organisation underwent leadership changes, and subsequently the club lost much of its contact, along with updates on its sister school and basic information. The organization stopped updating its website, and rumors began to spread that the donated money was not being used for the intended purpose. Far Away Friends made the difficult decision to disband their club and start something new.
“One of the goals,” DRHS club sponsor Brian Simmons said, “is to be more community-oriented and work with local shelters.”
The new club, Fluffy Buddies, focuses on helping animals in need, particularly those in local shelters not supported by government funding, which are also “no-kill”. A no-kill shelter is one that refuses to euthanize its animals, no matter how old they get. Animals are only put down in these shelters when living is causing severe pain (such as illnesses), and if the animal would be less miserable on the other side.
“We are very excited as a club to help animals and help find homes for them. Even just giving them a better shelter experience by raising funds for them,” Kianna Choe, DRHS senior and the vice president of Fluffy Buddies, said.
According to Simmons, the goal is to help out and spread awareness for these shelters however they can. That could be through posters or events. Fluffy Buddies will continue to hold monthly fundraisers — especially the popular doughnut challenge.
“I think members of the group are hoping to volunteer with the shelters, and we’ve also talked about adoption days where they try to adopt out animals, and we were thinking we could sponsor those,” Simmons said.
For the next year, Fluffy Buddies plans to focus on the Foothills Animal Shelter. Once they make contact, they’ll volunteer and put up posters of adoptable animals. Any fundraising will be provided to the shelter, unless they are unable to make contact. If that is the case, Fluffy Buddies has a list of alternative options. Either way, the club has plans and ideas they hope to put into action starting next semester.
So, keep an eye out for posters of animals that need a home. And if you can’t take one, then donate to Fluffy Buddies, and they’ll make sure the animals get what they need.
