Seniors Camille Georgallas and Marissa Cornejo have seen a problem. Animals in shelters are being put down everyday because no ones adopting them.

To fix this, they have started a campaign to raise awareness for animal shelters and will be collecting money for the Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge, Inc. for all of next week, starting on Monday, May 4.

As a project for their government class, run by Mr. Jeff Jasper, they were to choose a societal issue that matters to them and design a project based around it. They chose the lack of education surrounding animal adoption.

“We want to raise awareness because we feel like a lot of people don’t really know what actually happens in these shelters and don’t know why they should adopt,” Cornejo said.

Because people don’t often adopt their pets, favoring breeders, many animals are never adopted. As a result, shelters become over crowded and are forced to put many of the animals in their care down.

“If you adopt from a shelter, you’re saving a life,” Georgallas said.

They have a Twitter campaign going in an attempt to inform the public of this issue. They’ve also posted flyers all around the school.

The main thing they are doing is collecting donations. Proceeds will go to the Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge, Inc in Oakland, NJ. They are also setting up a donation box at the front of the school, collecting items from a wish list provided by the shelter.

“We just thought [this topic] was important because we thought it was something everyone could feel a connection to,” Cornejo said.