For more than a decade, teens have volunteered to build dog houses. Here's why

Teenagers from a London, Ont., high school are the latest group of youth taking part in a years-long construction project to help Indigenous communities across southwestern Ontario. 

Student volunteers at Saunders Secondary School have been using their lunch break to retrofit old shipping crates into insulated and shingled doghouses.

“It’s nice to make something that I know people are going to use, and that’s going to actually impact other people’s lives,” Grade 10 student Elijah Hammoud said. “It’s really encouraging to not only make them, but also know that it’s going to a good cause.”

By the end of this school year, the students plan to send 30 doghouses to Delaware Nation at Moraviantown, Oneida Nation of the Thames, Chippewas of the Thames First Nation and Munsee-Delaware Nation. 

Teacher Stephen Merklinger, who supervises the project, estimates students have donated close to 300 doghouses to various First Nations since the initiative started in 2015. 

Since then, his students have also built a feral cat shelter, gazebo, kindergarten playsets, benches and picnic tables to send out. 

“I like community-based projects so that [the students] are part of the community. They’re giving back and they are giving back to communities that many of them know nothing about,” Merklinger said. 

For others, like Grade 11 student Olivia Hopkins who is from Oneida Nation of the Thames, the project hits closer to home. 

“I was pretty surprised because I had one of the doghouses for my dog. I thought it was pretty cool that they came from my school, so I decided to help out and build more for the community,” she said.

There’s high demand for doghouses in Indigenous communities, according to Alison Bresette who founded the Aboriginal Community and Animal Advocacy Connection, and helped coordinate the school projects.

"Historically, even for myself growing up, we did not have animals inside. It was kind of a taboo thing," she said, adding that a historical lack of access to veterinary care, and a belief by some that animals should free roam, means that many families need doghouses in the winter months.

Growing interest from students

The initiative has changed significantly over the past decade, Merklinger said. 

Originally, only students in the school’s 4th R program, which was a mentorship program supporting Indigenous youth, built the doghouses. Now, volunteers from across the school come together to help with the construction projects. 

“Groups come in here from all different nationalities, faiths and backgrounds. They’re getting volunteer hours while they’re working here at lunchtime, but they’re also getting skills, knowledge and experience that they may or may not use down the road,” Merklinger said. 

That is the case for Grade 9 student Fortune Eleleme, who said she had no previous woodworking experience before she started volunteering. 

“I really wanted to help the community, learn more about how things work and learn how we can contribute,” Eleleme said.

“It’s very self-satisfying to know this is going to be used and it’s going to help someone else. It also helps you become a better person because you learn more about yourself and you get to refine your skills.”

Going beyond the school

While the project relied solely on donated materials in the past, Merklinger said the Thames Valley District School Board has donated material money to the project for the past four years.

The growing interest in helping with the doghouses has expanded beyond the school, according Bresette, who said she's heard from people who want to donate materials, deliver materials to Saunders and distribute the final doghouses to communities.

"This year we had band members from Oneida who helped us unload [the doghouses],” she said.

When she first learned how many people were interested helping with the construction projects, Bresette said she was impressed.

"It makes me happy when I know that people are doing it because they really want to do it," she said.