Kids Who Rock: In Her Own Words
December 2008
On October 30, Mimi C. Ausland of Bend, OR, traveled to New York City to accept the ASPCA Tommy Monahan Kid of the Year Award. Mimi is the founder of an amazing website called Freekibble.com that donates food to shelter animals. Here she talks about her trip to New York, where she was honored for her hard work at the ASPCA’s Humane Award Luncheon.
It was an amazing experience from start to finish. The ASPCA is one of the biggest and greatest animal welfare organizations, and they take such good care of their animals. I was so happy when I knew I would be getting an award from them!
The ASPCA named me Kid of the Year because I started Freekibble.com and Freekibblekat.com to feed animals at my local shelter. Now every time someone answers a trivia question on one of my websites, I donate ten pieces of pet food to animal shelters across the country.
I got my award at the Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center. The Rainbow Room is such a beautiful room—it has an enormous chandelier and a stage, and fits about 500 people. The day I got my award was Thursday, October 30, the day before Halloween. During the ceremony, the ASPCA showed a slideshow of me with some dogs from the Humane Society of Central Oregon. Then I walked up and accepted my award. It was a thrilling moment, and I loved it!
After the ceremony came one of my favorite parts of the trip—a tour of the ASPCA shelter! The outside of the shelter and all five floors are amazing. You walk inside, and there is a sweet little lobby and an entrance that leads to the elevators. Floors one and three are where the dogs and cats stay. Every dog gets a nice glass room, where he or she has plenty of space. Actually, all the animals looked pretty happy to be in a warm place instead of out in the cold, fall weather!
On the second level, there are more dogs and three big rooms, where cats are free to roam. The kitties have litter boxes, beds, fresh food and water, toys, company, everything a cat desires—except a loving home. That’s why I love doing freekibble. Even though it might not get animals adopted—although it has happened before—it gives them healthy, natural food and helps make them happy.
Two days later at 11:30 P.M. New York time, we were back in Bend, OR, and I was tired! I went straight to bed. But before I did, I thought about the whole experience, how I learned so much from it, and how it was one of the best trips ever! And how I was more inspired than ever to do more for animals!
P.S. You can read about Mimi and other kids who make a difference for animals in the new ASPCA Kids book series.
