Perry Hall Art Students Helping Homeless Pets

PERRY HALL, Md. (WJZ) -- An art teacher at the Perry Hall Middle School came up with an idea that would help not only her students, but also stray dogs and cats.

Mike Schuh reports her idea is now expanding while raising money.

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"The room was a mess at the end but we did a good job cleaning it up at the end of the month," art teacher Molly Schappel said.

Schappel is a dog owner and understands her pack.

"I'm really proud of you guys for doing the SPCA project," she said to her students. "I thought it turned out well."

She's talking about pictures her pack created of animals saved by the Maryland SPCA.

"They selected dog or car and they had to come up with their idea of how they wanted to represent their animal," Schappel said.

Miranda Heuscher chose this dog and her final design was nice enough to be put on public display.

"If you see this then you'll say that you'll be reminded that there are dogs that need to be adopted and you can help them," she said.

A good idea to help the SPCA is one thing, but it took the SPCA's Katie Flory to make it happen.

To display these 500 works of Art at the White Marsh Mall and then sell them.

"Not only do we want to raise money, we really want to raise awareness," Flory said. "We are here to improve the lives of pets and people in our community and this is one of the many ways we are able to do that."

Sure the artwork is cute, but it's the strong message that will be remembered.

"I liked it and I like that we were helping our community," said Katie, a 7th grader at Perry Hall Middle School.

It all adds up to helping thousands of homeless animals in our community.

The 500 pictures go up at White Marsh Mall Saturday. They are on sale Sunday from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.