Run, 1-Mile Walk & Costume Contest

It’s not every day that a teenager begs her mother to do community service. but 16-year-old adamson High School student abby Pantoja pestered her mom, Lucy, enough times that the two finally started volunteering at the SPCa of Texas about a year ago.

“She kept bugging me about it,” says Lucy, 34, who frequently volunteers with children’s charities through her job at Geico.

“She wants to be a vet.” every Saturday, mother and daughter drive to a PetSmart in Duncanville and spend most of the day cleaning cat cages and litter boxes, playing with adoptable cats and talking to prospective adopters.

Sometimes they’re tired from the week, and they don’t feel like going. but then they think about the cats. The payoff is when kitties are adopted. abby recently found homes for three cats on a single Saturday.

“If we can’t go, it makes us feel bad,” Lucy says. “and sometimes we just don’t want to go, but we go anyway.”

For abby, who loves animals and says biology is her best subject, it’s a good opportunity to learn about veterinary work. Since she started volunteering, her grades have improved.

“She’s more focused on her goals and what she wants to do in life,” Lucy says.

Finding your passion and doing things that make you happy is the way to succeed, Lucy says, and she tries to instill that idea in abby and her 14-year-old brother.

“I just want them to understand that if you pay it forward, you are blessed,” she says. “We raised them that whatever you give, you will get back 10 times more.” but even without that, the payoff is profound, abby says.

Volunteering already is paying off for abby. She recently was selected for a paid internship at uT Southwestern Medical Center. She’ll sacrifice six Saturdays at the pet store to work in the hospital’s labs.

“It’s relaxing,” she says. “It’s good to know that I’m helping animals get adopted and find good homes.” n