Moniteau club brings exotic animals out for annual fundraiser
CHERRY TWP — It costs thousands of dollars each year to provide for all the animals in the care of Moniteau Jr./Sr. High School’s Creepers & Crawlers club. But each year, the club, made up of high school students, has a fundraiser that shows everyone where the money is going.
That fundraiser was Saturday afternoon, April 18, this year, and the high school’s gymnasium was filled with animals like a tortoise, a crocodile, rats, parrots, dogs and frogs, as well as many people who attended the event for a close-up look at them.
Emma Campbell, a senior who is co-president of the club with her twin sister, Aurora Campbell, said the event brings many people in, who are then challenged to “come out of their shell” for the opportunity to handle an animal normally uncommon for the area.
“I think they’re overwhelmed and shocked when we tell them they all live at the school,” Emma said about the community reaction to the club and its annual event.
People who paid the $3 entry fee Saturday could not only see the animals the club takes care of, but give rides to some snakes that tend to wrap themselves around a person’s arm, or parrots that would grip the forearm of a person who extended it.
Adele Palagallo, adviser of Creepers & Crawlers, said attendance was lower than usual when the event first began Saturday — people were shoulder to shoulder in the gym last year and that was not the case this year. But Palagallo said the event is still enough to generate excitement, because of the animals on hand.
The fundraiser was founded by a former Moniteau student and club member, Caleb Kiely, who died in June 2023. Saturday’s event was the third time the event was a memorial to him, and some of Kiely’s family members still attend the club shindig in his memory, according to Palagallo.
“Two years ago was our first memorial,” Palagallo said. “We made a lot through the fundraiser.”
In addition to the animals that people could hold, about 20 other organizations had tables at the event, Emma said, and it also featured food, basket raffles, a bounce house and live music.
Some of the attending agencies had animals that helped educate. Heart and Soul Parrot Rescue, a West Mifflin-based parrot rescue agency, brought parrots to the event, which gave Bill Minner and Terry Chapman an in to speak about the birds and their habits.
Chapman said the parrot rescue normally gets parrots from people who are unprepared to care for them, because they are tricky birds with attributes people don’t know about. Not only can they live to be more than 80 years old, parrots have a bite that matches their bark.
“Some people don’t understand how noisy they are and how much goes into taking care of a bird,” Chapman said. “Macaws have the bite strength that can take a finger off if you get too close.”
