TU Student Launches Non-Profit Organization
Post Published On:As Thomas University senior, Kristen Manza, walked around her community in Thomasville, she often noticed countless number of stray cats roaming around apartment complexes, houses, businesses, and dumpsters.
“There are a lot of feral cats around Thomasville, and I noticed that not many people were doing anything to solve the problem,” Manza said.
The Canadian native felt a heightened level of responsibility to help them, and her community, to decrease the number of stray cats and litters of kittens in Thomas County.
So, she decided to start a group called All Saints Cat TNR in 2021, which officially became a non-profit organization in December, to trap, neuter, and return the cats to the place where they were originally found.
When Manza traps cats, she takes them to South Georgia Low Cost Spay and Neuter Clinic in Thomasville to be neutered. Once they are neutered and their ears are tipped, signifying they have been neutered, Manza ensures that they recover by allowing them to stay at her home for one or two days before returning them back into the community.
Manza and the members of All Saints Cat TNR’s board also launched a website for All Saints Cat TNR in early January.
“The website is supposed to be a main hub for people to access information, make donations, and find out about cats that are available to be adopted through other agencies,” Manza said. “It is really for people to know how they can get involved.”
So far, All Saints Cat TNR has had over 130 cats neutered and more than 30 adopted.
Similarly to helping cats, Manza wants to continue to help the community in a different way. She is a pursuing a degree in Social Work and a minor in Psychology. Once she graduates, Manza said she wants to focus on therapy.
“In a strange way, getting cats neutered is also social work becasue it helps the people too and it gets the community together,” Manza said. “I have been able to get 200 people together and hopeful inspire other people to help and feel empowered to go out there and help even if it is just cats.”
For more information about All Saints Cat TRN, visit the website.
