Faithful Friends Animal Society, located near Wilmington, is finishing up a major upgrade to its dog shelter.
With private grants and a donation from Dr. Sandra Gibney – an emergency room physician at St. Francis Hospital, given in honor of her late mother Mary Rita Gibney – Faithful Friends remodeled about 3,000 square feet in its shelter.
The space will haveT-Kennels, manufactured by Shor-Line of Kansas City, Kansas. The kennels will house more than 48 dogs.
“We anticipate the more welcoming environment will provide a better adoption experience and hopefully result in more potential adopters visiting our shelter,” says Jane Pierantozzi, executive director of Faithful Friends.
The $200,000 renovation, which includes the addition of two adoption rooms for quieter meet-and-greets, was directed by Faithful Friends’ board member Jill Cantera, principal at Bellevue Holdings LLC in Wilmington, and carried out by a small army of contractors and volunteers with materials purchased and given by local businesses.
Cantera says, “We were able to utilize the space very efficiently from an animal care perspective and, more importantly, make the dogs happier in roomier, quieter digs.” She points out that the time saved in feeding and cleaning can be spent on longer walks and more socializing for the dogs, too, which is essential for their mental well being and in developing and maintaining good behavior.
Looking to the future, Pierantozzi says the agency is planning to acquire land to build a permanent facility at some point, and the new kennels are designed to be easy to move into a new shelter when the time comes.
The area, known as Gibney’s Doggie Kingdom will be officially opened at a private ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 15. An open house for the general public will take place on Saturday, May 17, from noon to 5 p.m. at Faithful Friends Animal Society, 12 Germay Drive.
Software donation
The Department of Physics and Engineering has received an in-kind donation of computer software valued at $430,750 from Operation Technology Inc. that will help Delaware State University engineering students get training in electrical power analysis.
The ETAP electrical power systems design and analysis software will be used to train the engineering students in electrical power system analysis. This will be used as a Laboratory Simulation Software in a newly developed senior course “Power System Analysis” in the Department of Physics and Engineering. It will also be used in future courses that will be taught in the area of electrical power.
ETAP is a fully integrated electrical power system analysis tool for both direct and alternating currents. Engineers use ETAP in thousands of companies and electric utilities worldwide in the design, analysis, maintenance, and operation of electrical power systems.
ETAP software can be used to perform network analysis, real time monitoring, protective device design, transient analysis, user defined dynamic modeling, cable thermal analysis, fault analysis, load shedding, stability analysis and many others to simulate and design the electrical power system.
Mukti Rana, assistant professor of physics and engineering, facilitated the development of the department’s relationship with Operation Technologies, resulting in the software donation. Dr. Rana noted that Dr. Noureddine Melikechi, dean of the College of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology, was also helpful in the endeavor.
Toys get a second chance
Second Chance Toys and Kohl’s gathered at the Delaware Children’s Museum for a Family Fun Day event last month where close to 5,000 toys were gathered for children in need.
The toys Were picked-up by 1-800 GOT JUNK? which volunteered its manpower, time and trucks for the event, and then delivers the toys to various locations in the Delaware and Philadelphia areas.
Kohl’s associates, hailing from stores in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, piled up the thousands of toys they collected and cleaned, in front of the museum.
Delaware Children’s Museum invited the community to come and enjoy the Family Fun Day festivities with all the toys collected by Kohl’s displayed in front. This year, nearly 60 Kohl’s locations collected gently used toys to donate.
