Last Sunday, students from Schenck Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center participated in a joint community service project with ChainFree Asheville, volunteering their time to help build fences for two chained dogs in the Asheville area. The students helped install two welded-wire fences for the owner’s two dogs, Bo and Otis. Since the posts had already been set by ChainFree Asheville volunteers earlier in the week, the students helped put in the T-bars and helped string the wire on the fences.

One of the dedicated volunteers from ChainFree Asheville, Anitta Conlon, had a multitude of positive comments to say about working with the students from Schenck Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center. She commented: “The students were very eager to work, and they all had great attitudes.  They followed directions, and you only had to tell them once how to do something and then they had it down! We would love to have these students volunteer with us again in the future.” She was very grateful for the students’ service, as she believed the project would have taken at least three times longer without the students’ help.

ChainFree Asheville is a nonprofit organization that aims to prevent the continuous chaining of dogs in Buncombe County. The majority of their work involves building fences for low-income families so they can keep their dogs off the chain. Since continuous chaining of a dog can be very dangerous to not only the confined dogs, but also to other animals and humans as well, these projects are very important.

The students from Schenck Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center recognized the benefits of projects like this. Schenck student Zach Mitchell remarked: “It was very rewarding seeing how happy the two dogs were when they entered their fenced homes and were free. They seemed so pleased to be off those chains after so many years.”