Petting for Charity

You’d think petting on a college campus would be a story not appropriate for this website. But the students of Stanford’s InterVarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship had something very different in mind. Their idea: a petting zoo, similar to what you delighted in as a 5-year-old on your visit to the county fair. Only this zoo was on the college's campus, and featured not only a goat, a classic feature of any good petting zoo, but also a yak, an innovative addition meant to bring in the visitors.

Because visitors were, for this zoo, the point. Visitors brought money, paying $5 for a chance to pet Darcy, the black-and-white goat, or Yakoo, the 10-month-old yak, and $10 to have a photo taken with both animals. And money allowed the Stanford Goat Project to help the NGO WorldVision purchase goats to feed and support needy families around the world. For every $75 raised during the May 21 fundraiser, WorldVision supplied one goat to a needy person or family with training on how to care for it. Some of Stanford’s departments pooled their members’ money. The physics department, for example, topped out at $225, enough to donate three animals.The event raised over $6,700 to purchase 90 dairy goats. That’s 90 families around the world who will benefit from a little innocent petting.