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COLUMBIA — The Mid-City Lumber Building smelled of Pine-Sol and Lysol on Saturday. Volunteers were scattered around the building — scrubbing, sweeping and dusting — all in the name of animals.
"I got my cleaning supplies, and I'm going to clean," Friends for the Animals facilitator Millie Rambis said.
- James Bassett, right, of Mid-City Lumber, delivers a pallet of sheet rock and fiberglass insulation to the Centeral Missouri Humane Society on Wednesday. The Humane Society is currently undergoing renovations underwritten by a $1 million prize from a 2009 contest sponsored by Zootoo.com.
- Millie Rambis, front, facilitator for the Central Missouri Humane Society Friends for the Animals, and Alan Allert, the executive director of the Humane Society, work together to remove blinds at the old Mid-City Lumber building on Saturday. The building is the temporary location for Humane Society adoptions during the renovations funded by winning the ZooToo renovation contest.
- From left, Libby Burks, 14, and Amanda Huhman, 14, clean a desk area of the old Mid-City Lumber building on Saturday. The girls are affectionately called the 'ZooToo Girls' because they found and spearheaded the efforts to apply and win the ZooToo renovation on behalf of the Columbia Humane Society.
That morning began the process of readying the temporary space for the humane society animals while the permanent location gets a makeover. The Mid-City Lumber Building was donated to the humane society after being empty for four years.
Amanda Huhman, 14, sported yellow rubber gloves, ready to clean until the job was completely finished. Huhman has been with the humane society since she was in second grade. Her earliest memory of the society was adopting her dog, Wrigley.
"I like to work with the animals, " Amanda said, "You get to see how excited they are when they meet their new homes."
The humane society won the Zootoo contest last summer and received money torenovate their current facilities. Volunteers and Executive Director Alan Allert are very excited about the changes that are going to happen.
"It's a very old building and they are going to completely revamp it," Allert said.
There were no idle hands, Allert who wore dress slacks and a tie was getting into the grime and taking down old dusty blinds.
"I attribute a lot to Dr. Allert. He's really turned it around," Rambis said.
Allert and the rest of the volunteers hope to get the building spic and span by the end of Saturday and get animals moved in within two weeks. The entire renovation of the shelter is estimated to last six weeks.
At the end of the day, Shelter Relations Coordinator Allison Toth put it simplest,"It's all about the animals," he said.
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