Rachael Montfort shown with some of the pet supplies she helped collect
Mechanicsville, MD — This is the story about a little girl with a big heart. Her name is Rachael Montfort. She is 8 years old, lives in Mechanicsville and goes to Mechanicsville Elementary School. Her parents are Dana and Robert Montfort. Let’s let her mother Dana Snead-Montfort tell our readers what Rachael did:
“Rachael was reading a book about a play, and they were going to donate the tickets sales. It didn’t mention who they were donating to, so Rachael asked me. She is familiar with charity as we raise money for the March of Dimes’ local event “March for Babies.”
“I told her it could be a charity like that, and mentioned several other options. She asked “well does anybody help animals?” It was a few months before Christmas, and she was worried the animals wouldn’t have anything for Christmas, so our journey began! She made a sign and I called around to pet stores to see if we could hang some up. PetValu in Leonardtown said sure! So we hung the sign, created a gofundme account for those not able to make it to the pet store, and shared her mission via social media and word of mouth.
“With the help of friends, family and the community we were able to fill two trucks worth of donations, which included food, litter, toys, blankets, etc. Rachael has always had an enormous amount of love for animals, and with our two dogs being adopted and our cat being rescued off the street, she knew that many animals need help and wanted to help them out.
“She got to meet some of the animals she helped first hand and seen how grateful Second Hope Rescue was to have received the amount of donations they did. Rachael’s brother, Austin, is still a little too young to fully understand about charity but he went with us almost every time to pick donations up, and helped load the trucks. We all had a great time doing this and Rachael said she wants to do it again next year. So that’s exactly what we will do!”
Second Hope Rescue is a no-kill, all volunteer rescue group in Southern Maryland. They show their adoptable animals regularly at PetValu in Leonardtown and PETCO in La Plata. To find out more about them go to www.secondhoperescue.org
Contact Dick Myers at news@thebaynet.com
