Humble beginnings: The Founding Of AniMend

I was in study hall on a May morning my freshman year of high school. For some time, I'd been pondering how I could make a difference in my community with no real ideas. Then, while scrolling on social media, of all things, a video of a girl that had founded her own nonprofit organization in high school came across my phone screen. This wasn't an initiative I'd realized was an option for someone as young as me. After looking in to what this would entail, I began brainstorming ideas; I needed a cause I felt passionate about and had the means to make a real impact towards. In middle school, I'd started a club to make toys and raise awareness for local animal shelters. The concept of what AniMend would eventually become hit me as I reflected on that experience- I would make it my mission to support local animal shelters.

Thus, "The Pawsitive Change Project" was born with one dream- to help animals by supporting animal shelters!

After more research, I realized that it was costlier than I had thought to register a nonprofit organization- more so than I had the funds for. With this new information, I decided I would host an initial fundraiser to raise the money needed to begin the process. Much planning, posting, and rallying of my friends went in to AniMend's initial fundraiser. Once I'd landed on a bake sale/lemonade stand, I estimated how much I though we'd raise per day with a fundraiser like this. This helped me plan to host a 2-day lemonade stand each month of the coming summer in order to raise the $600 dollars I needed. I passed out 100+ flyers in my neighborhood, posted on my organization's new Instagram account, and otherwise spread the word however I could.

At the actual event, our lemonade and baked goods were very successful and we received several generous donations. On the second day we had similar success- but a storm closed us 3 hours earlier than planned.

In that day and a half, AniMend raised $1600 thanks to the incredible community in Arlington Heights and the surrounding area.

And with that, the process of registering began! After taking some time to assess, we made the executive decision to change our name from The Pawsitive Change Project to AniMend. We then researched the steps required to register a non-profit, legal advisement, and anything else AniMend would need to thrive as an organization.

The AniMend team will always be incredibly grateful for the community that made our mission to help animals by supporting animal shelters possible!

AniMend's initial fundraiser

AniMend's initial fundraiser