A fifth-grade student at Lippitt Elementary School, with the help of his school community and his parent’s support, gathered a large donation of cat supplies in a little over a month, which will be donated to Johnston-based animal rescue facility Scruffy Paws to help their mission of helping find homes for homeless kittens and cats.

“We’re cat people,” said Landon, matter-of-factly from a conference room in the main office at Lippitt on Friday. “I really wanted to do this because I love kittens and I wanted to help kittens.”

Landon lives with his mom, Joy, and father, Jesse, and their four cats – and a dog. He takes care of the whole pack, and said that he sees his animal friends more like people, all with their own individual personalities, more than pets.

There was no real impetus for Landon to start collecting cat items for the shelter, other than his desire to give back to the shelter that had given them three of their four rescued cats – the most recent adoption being a brother/sister pair of kittens about a year ago.

Nevertheless, he began in earnest his quest on Feb. 4 to collect dry and wet cat food, kitty toys, cat litter and blankets – the stuff that would help the shelter while it houses homeless pets and could be given to foster families while they foster kittens that are socialized and prepared to be adopted out of the system to loving homes.

“We got almost everything on the list,” said Landon. The fundraiser wrapped up on March 15, and netted an impressive pile of food, toys and other comforts that were provided to the shelter over this past weekend.

But Landon didn’t stop at just donating the gathered items. Using his own money that he had earned from doing chores and other household tasks, Landon went with his parents over the weekend to purchase even more supplies to really make an impact on the shelter.

Joy said that the “Campaign for Cats”, as it had been dubbed, was an especially timely drive because the beginning of spring is typically the beginning of the season where shelters see a sudden influx in stray cats – due to strays having their litters as the warmer weather arrives – and so the shelter will need all the help they can get.

She said that, while the shelter normally receives monetary donations to help fund their mission of spaying or neutering the kittens and making sure they are given their inoculations, they much less often receive the tangible things that adoptive pet owners or foster pet families need. Scruffy Paws, while located in Johnston, serves all of Rhode Island.

Landon said that the drive wouldn’t have been possible without his loving and supportive parents, and thanked Lippitt’s principal, Martin Susla, whom Landon called “the best principal” in the city.

“It’s good people doing good things for animals,” Landon said. He hopes to one day put his entrepreneurial talents to use to continue to help animals.