Huntington , Cabell County , West Virginia

The Cabell Wayne Animal Shelter gets hundreds of pounds in donations Friday morning. Employees at the Cabell County Courthouse stepped up after hearing about changes taking place at the shelter, and wanted to do what they could to help.

County manager Chris Tatum says, "There was a call to arms, and the prosecutor's office and the security department answered that. You know, it's not that the shelter was hurting necessarily, but they wanted to do something nice for the organization and that's what's happened today."

Assistant prosecuting attorney Malia Adkins helps spearhead the effort. She says, "I saw the new direction that the shelter was taking, and I felt like grassroots action is the way to help facilitate that process, and was very inspired by the county's reaction to the problems at the shelter so I thought I should help out."

Asst. Director of Security at the Cabell County courthouse Ed Haun says, "They gave their hearts and souls for this and we're going to do it again. We're very proud of this."

They've been collecting dog and cat food, newspapers, cleaning supplies, and anything else the shelter needs to take care of the animals there.

Tatum says, "It speaks volumes to the kind of people that we have in the courthouse. Our prosecutor's office, our security department are a bunch of great people, and as far as that goes, the rest of the courthouse. We all work very well together. When there's a need, it's taken care of. We kind of band together and take care of one another, so I can't tell you happy this makes me to see things like this happen."

The Board of Directors recently decided to make some personnel changes at the shelter, and they've also started giving the building some facelifts. Tatum explains, "We've made a lot of procedural improvements and equipment purchased to take care of a lot of things out here. Over the next six months, as the new director is in place that the board of directors is going to hire hopefully by early next week, you'll see even more changes."

Tatum tells us about some of the changes they've made so far. "Everything from putting a coat of paint on places that haven't been painted in years, to putting down floor tile in necessary places, put a new hot water system in. We're working on parking lot improvements. We've put two or three new dogs runs in outdoors. We're going to do new outdoor kennels. There's a lot that's going to happen out here, and a lot of that is just people becoming more involved and quite frankly, shelter employees buying back in to the mission of the shelter," he says.

They're hoping more people will step up to donate supplies and adopt animals. Adkins says, "I would just really appreciate if people would come out and give their time and really support the shelter because without the community's support, and friends and family, it's going to be very hard to initiate change."

Haun adds, "I'm an animal lover, and there's so many people who feel the same way, and obviously what we got today is just the start. We're going to do it over and over again every chance we can."

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