MANATEE COUNTY — When the common denominator is cats and dogs the rest of the equation is easy.
Morgan Gerhart, the director of Advancement for Girls Inc. of Sarasota., said about 15 girls teamed up for a "Math of Making" project that created 113 blankets to keep cats and dogs warm while they waited at Nate's Honor Animal Rescue to go to forever homes.
The girls teamed with Annie Wilson, a local fashion designer for Elimindi, to build templates, measure bolts of fabric, and cut them to fit pet beds at Nate's.
"One of the tenets of Girls Inc. is for the girls to be smart," Girls Inc. director of advancement Morgan Gerhart said. "It's strong, smart, and bold — and smart entails an education component. STEM being one of those components."
Wilson presented the idea to the girls who became excited to know they'd get to hand deliver the blankets to the cats and dogs who would use them.
The project was meant to be challenging, but unnoticeable to the girls who whipped through the blankets with puppy kisses and cat whiskers on their minds.
"We weave all of that into our curriculum and fun activities so they sort of don't know they are learning it, but they're learning it," Gerhart said, smiling.
One of girls, Morgan Mock of Sarasota, understood it was a math challenge, but saw the big picture.
"I thought, 'Oh, my god, I’m going to be saving the lives of dogs and cats,'" Mock said. "I love pets so I was ecstatic when I found out — it was really fun."
Tylee Giorgio of Sarasota, trying to save her glasses from a mischievous puppy, also enjoyed a few licks from the happy dog she was holding. She wants to share her experience with the cats and dogs with her friends hoping to convince one of them to adopt a pet.
"What I thought was we would actually be making these dogs comfortable instead of them just sitting on the floor," Giorgio said. "During wintertime it's probably cold for these dogs. We'll make them nice and warm during the winter."
Karen Slomba of Nate's Honor Animal Rescue said they received permission from the girls to sell some of the blankets to go along with newly adopted pets.
"It means so much to us because the girls worked so hard to make these blankets for these dogs and cats," Slomba said. "They had the best interest of the animals at heart which is just really amazing. We were thrilled with their donations and especially thrilled with their hard work.
"It provides comfort for the animals."