On February 5, 2022, Shine City Project volunteered at The Las Vegas Farm. Established in 1961 and opened to the public since 1968, The Las Vegas Farm, and its non-profit, Barn Buddies Rescue, has been the home for rescued farm animals for 60 years. A wide variety of animals can be found there including goats, cows, horses, pigs, tortoises, alpacas, ducks, chickens, peacocks, sheep, and many others. The Las Vegas Farm hopes to educate the public about responsible animal ownership and the amount of care and effort that is involved in owning an animal. By doing so, they hope to prevent other animals from being abused, neglected, and abandoned.
On that Saturday morning, four Shine City Project volunteers arrived to help out with several tasks at The Las Vegas Farm. For three of them, their main task was to help fill small paper bags with hay. They had to work together to fill the paper bags with a generous amount of hay while being careful not to tear the bags. These small paper bags would eventually be sold to visitors for a small donation and help support operations at The Las Vegas Farm. Visitors can then use these small bags of hay to help attract and feed the animals. Other tasks that were performed by their volunteers were helping around the farmer’s market by dusting off furniture and helping to scoop up poop from the pig pens. Overall, even though their volunteers were at The Las Vegas Farm for a total of six hours, the time went by quickly as they went about our tasks. They were happy to help out and they look forward to helping out again.