By Tina Pappas

A member of Little Falls Cub Scout Pack 14  recently showed his concern for shelter animals and as a result achieved his “Arrow of Light” community service project goal. Stephen Eliasz, 10, is currently in the “Webelos” rank of the Cub Scouts. With the recent adoption of his rescued puppy from the Clifton Animal Shelter, located at 900 Clifton Avenue, he wanted to find of way of giving back to the community, which would also count towards completing his project.

According to Stephen’s father Kris, the staff at the shelter is so caring and helpful that it inspired Stephen to want to help them in turn and thank them for his puppy, an American Staffordshire Terrier named Rocket that the family adopted last July.

“Little Falls shares animal control and shelter services with Clifton, so Stephen just wanted to give back to them,” he said. “This also counted as his community service project for the Arrow of Light Award, which is the highest honor a Cub Scout can attain and is the only award that can be brought up to the Boy Scout level.”

With help from his fellow scouts in his pack, as well as his family, friends and neighbors, Stephen began to gather food, blankets, and all types of other dog and cat supplies. He found time to do this between school, ice hockey, including attending Cub Scout meetings once a week, Kris added.

Stephen said he was so inspired by the way the staff at the Clifton Animal Shelter care for their animals.

“Everyone there is really nice so I really wanted to do something for them. I thought I could help by donating supplies to them,” Stephen said. “Afterwards, I thought this could also go towards my Arrow of Light project.”

After amassing the donated supplies, he and his father packed up the collection and dropped it off to the shelter on March 13.

“They were all happy to receive the donation,” Stephen said. “I was just really excited that I was able to do this for them and they appreciated it. I was very thankful for it.”

Stephen said he’d like to keep going in the scouts and eventually go for an Eagle Scout rank if he gets up to that level. He said his favorite subject as a fifth grader at School No. 1 is Social Studies. He said he doesn’t rule out the possibility of working with animals when he gets older.

“I’m definitely an animal lover so I know I’ll always try to do things to help them,” he said.

Kris said the collection was a great way to help the shelter.

“I think this was a great thing to do for his community service project because everyone at this shelter is wonderful,” Kris said. “I’m really proud of Stephen for coming up with this idea.”

Evelyn Ackley, President of Friends of the Shelter-Clifton, said the organization is the adoption wing of the Clifton Animal Shelter. Last July a dog they rescued gave birth to a record of 13 puppies and that’s when the Eliasz family came to adopt “Rocket Man,” who was from that litter. She said it’s been wonderful to see the support given by Stephen, and others for the shelter.

“I find it’s become more and more common now, such as in lieu of flowers in a memorial service, to just donate to a cause like ours here,” she said. “Stephen did such a nice thing, and it’s great to see scouts and people from other organizations being so supportive to us. People are really caring and there are true animal lovers out there, like Stephen and his family.”

As for Rocket Man, she said she’s happy to see that he received such a loving home with the Eliasz family. The family kept his original name of Rocket but just dropped “Man” when they adopted him.

“Rocket has grown into such a big, healthy dog now and he’ll be turning a year old this May,” she added. “It’s always a happy ending when our animals receive a good, loving home. We named all the puppies from this litter space names so some of his siblings have names like Comet, Pluto etc. The mom was named Nova. It’s great that Rocket went right into a great home!

Photos courtesy of Kris Eliasz