18th Birthday Presents

If you're looking for 18th birthday presents with a difference, take inspiration from Nathan Winner who let his 12th birthday party go to the dogs. And cats. That's partly because his mom, Lynn Winner, wanted to impart a sense of giving. Two months before the Pelham boy had his birthday, she asked him what he wanted to do for his party. She suggested instead of collecting presents they accept donations for the humane society. "Well, it was my mom's idea and we talked about it, and I just said OK and it went on from there," Nathan said. The family's cat, Mocha, was a rescued animal, which is one of the reasons they chose the humane society as their charity. "We are big animal lovers in the house so we talked about maybe instead of doing the present thing, we make a donation to the humane society," Lynn said. She said these days people are too focused on themselves. She wanted her son to break away from this current trend, to start thinking about others. "Instead of 'me, me, me' it's he can give back." "It's that pay-it-forward thing," she said. Lynn said she hopes other people host parties to benefit charities, but not necessarily the humane society. "There are lots of other people that could do with that extra little help: food banks or whatever it may be," she said. The boys had a great time going shopping for animal toys and food, said Lynn. Shauna Sneek, a front desk worker at Welland and District Humane Society, said she was grateful for the donation from the Winner family and the other partygoers. She said it was good to see kids giving up the things they might want. "The fact that it is children who are giving up their birthday gifts -- their toys -- things that maybe they want for themselves, they are sacrificing that and stepping up to donate to animals that can't get the help," she said. Humane society staff try to give their animals as much care as they can because they may not have had a great start in life, said Sneek. Kitten food is always needed at the humane society, as is cat, dog and puppy chow. "Right now the kitten food will start to be in high demand," she said. This is due to people bringing in stray pregnant cats. Kittens cannot maintain a proper diet on adult cat food. "We have a lot more adult dogs in the shelter, so sometimes the adult dog food plays a bigger role than the puppy food." Whatever the donation is to the shelter, Sneek said, it is always appreciative. "We never look a gift horse in the mouth." Welland Tribune (Ontario) April 14, 2009 Tuesday Final Edition Imparting a sense of giving; BYLINE: SCOTT HAINES, FOR THE TRIBUNE; SECTION NEWS; Pg. A5 LENGTH: 393 words DATELINE: PELHAM