Berkshire Elementary supports bears at Wild Animal Sanctuary in Boyd

Berkshire Elementary School students recently had the exciting opportunity to support the Wild Animal Sanctuary-Texas in Boyd with a campus service project. Each class adopted a bear to support from the sanctuary and worked on a fun surprise for their animal. 

“The kids are in love with their classroom bears,” said Amanda Johnson, counselor at Berkshire. “Each bear has its own individual story, and we talk about what rescue means and how we’re helping them as a community.”

The sanctuary is currently home to 30 rescued bears, including 22 North American black bears, 1 Asiatic black bear and 7 brown bears.

Mrs. Johnson said the goal of the project was to keep kids engaged and involved in community service. Once they decided to support the sanctuary, they knew they wanted to provide a fun donation for the bears. 

For their campus service project, every classroom worked together to assemble “bear boxes” – large cardboard boxes filled will smaller boxes – for their adopted bears at the sanctuary to play with. Students filled each box with different smells and treats, such as peanut butter and nutmeg, for the bears to discover.

“Bears actually like to play with cardboard boxes. It’s almost like an enrichment activity for them,” Mrs. Johnson said. 

Once the students completed their bear boxes, staff members from Berkshire loaded everything up and delivered it to the sanctuary for the bears to enjoy.

“We’re hoping that all the bears can enjoy this year and years to come,” Mrs. Johnson said. “We’re really happy to help the sanctuary and do it together as a bear family.”

See additional photos of the bear box donations on the district’s Flickr page.

Read more about the bears at the sanctuary on their website.