ASPCA Education: Service Learning: Towel Drive

Gently used towels and blankets are great for bedding in shelters and for bathing shelter animals. Collecting towels and blankets will help your local shelter offset the cost of caring for homeless animals—and they’re usually always in great demand and very much appreciated!

Getting Started:

Contact a shelter. Contact shelters in your local city or town and find out which ones will most benefit from the donation. Many animal shelters have a wish list of items needed, so if they can’t use extra bedding, they may need something else.

Ask for help. You will need lots of help with organizing the event, collecting donations, sorting the towels and blankets, and delivering the donations to the shelters. Ask your friends and classmates to help, and be sure to seek the help of an adult, such as a teacher, guardian, parent or community group leader.

Next, you should assign a task to each person in your group. Tasks may include: calling shelters in your area, finding a location to hold the event, creating posters, publicizing and distributing posters, collecting towels and blankets, sorting towels and blankets and boxing the donations.

It’s a good idea to assign someone to take pictures during the collection event and when the towels are delivered to the shelters. You can display these photographs after the event.

Date and location of event: Once you have decided on a location for the event such as a school, community center or other location, decide on a date well in advance. You could hold your event in connection with another animal event, such as Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month. For a list of animal-related events and holidays, check out the Events Calendar.

Publicity
Create posters asking people to donate towels and blankets. Place posters in schools, community groups and clubs you may belong to. Please remember to ask permission before putting up a poster in any location.

Make sure to include the following information in your publicity materials:
- Date and location of the event
- Theme—if the day of the event is in connection with an animal event, make sure to indicated this in the poster.
- Brief description of the event and what organization the towels and blankets will be donated to.
- Indicate types of donations, and how they should be packaged. It’s also a good idea to mention that all bedding and towels should be clean, and free of any small decorations that a dog or cat could chew off or choke on.

Day of Event

Location. Make sure your location for towel and blanket collection is clearly marked and visible. Put up several posters around the location, and be sure to display something colorful, such as balloons, to bring attention to the location. Use your imagination!

Materials. Set up a table with chairs for those greeting donors as they arrive, and to hold any information you would like to give away about pets or about the organizations to which you are donating the towels and blankets.

Sign Up! Get a special notebook to record the name, address and description of donation for each of the donors. You can ask them to sign in themselves, or assign someone to record the information. This information will be used to send donors receipts, information on future events, updates on the success of the towel and blanket drive, and thank-you notes for their donations.

Collection Bins. Have boxes set-up in an area to place donated towels and blankets. The boxes should be clearly marked. This will make it easier to sort the treats.

After the Event

Delivery! Once you have collected the towels and blankets, sort them and package them neatly in small and medium boxes so they are easier to transport.

Contact the shelters that are accepting the donations, and confirm a date to deliver the towels and blankets.

Under the supervision of an adult, deliver the towels and blankets to the shelter or shelters waiting for the donations.

Thank you! It’s important to thank the donors for their contributions. You can develop a generic letter or use our sample thank you letter. Also, it’s nice to include a brief description of the shelters that will receive their donations, and information on any upcoming events you will have.

Good work! Give yourselves a pat on the back for a job well done. Ask your adult supervisor if you can have a lunch or dessert to thank the volunteers for their good deeds.

Smile! It’s time to show off your work. Ask permission to display any pictures taken at the event at your school, community organization or after-school program. If you are part of a club, this is a great way to let people know what you do—and is a SUPER way to recruit new members!