Over the last several weeks, Vandalia’s Jeanie Connolly has developed into quite the seamstress.

Be it during her downtime in class at Dowagiac’s North Pointe Center in the day or at her home in the evening, Connolly has spent much of the past month with needle and thread in hand, creating dozens of stuffed toys for cats and dogs she has been selling to fellow students, Lewis Cass ISD staff and her neighbors.

A few days before Thanksgiving last week, all the hours that Connolly poured into her tiny creations paid off in a big way.

Last Tuesday, the student donated the $161 she had made off selling the pet toys to the Cass County Animal Shelter, where she has been volunteering since the summer. She didn’t need to wait very long to see exactly how her generosity was used, as the shelter staff immediately rushed out to purchase some much needed medication for a few of its animals.

“We were able to treat some cats right that day,” Connolly said. “I got a phone call from Robin [Rowe, an animal control officer with the shelter] later that the cats were already starting to feel better.”

Connolly is hoping those are the first of many animals she and the rest of the community will be able to save in the coming months.

The Vandalia student, who has been attending the Lewis Cass ISD special education center for the past year and a half, has been raising money for the shelter by selling her pet toys since early November. Like many other shelters, Cass County lacks the necessary funding to treat illnesses in every one of its cats and dogs housed there, with many of them instead having to be put down.

For Connolly, who helps clean the feline cages at the shelter several times a week, dealing with animal who pass away has become one of the more unfortunate aspects of the job, she said.

“It’s helped me a lot with controlling my emotions,” she said.

It was while tending for a litter of sick kittens, though, that the animal lover decided to try whatever she could to help the four-legged companions get whatever additional care they need.

“It’s something so close to her heart, something she is so passionate about, that she had to find a way to make it happen,” said Molly High, Connolly’s instructor at North Pointe.

The educator has been tremendous supporter of her student’s fundraising efforts, helping to spread the word about the project to the rest of the ISD staff as well as to the greater community through social media. As a result, Connolly has received some much needed assistance for her sewing efforts, with people donating tons of fabric and fleece for her to use; someone even gave Connolly her own sewing machine to use.

The support she has received over the last several weeks has been a pleasant surprise for Connolly, who said she never expected to raise that much money so quickly.

“It’s been really awesome,” Connolly said. “People aren’t just helping me, they’re helping out the animals. They’ve saved many lives already…I’m very grateful for the support, and I know the animals are too.”

People who wish to purchase one of Connolly’s pet toys can do so by calling the North Pointe Center at 782-7727 or by emailing Molly High at mhigh@lewiscassisd.org.