Young animal lover raises money for local animal shelter

For the past six months, local 8-year-old Jaiden Hughes has been raising money for the Highland County Humane Society Animal Shelter. This month, Jaiden is celebrating the sale of over 50 copies of her book "Respect The Dogs!", which she wrote and illustrated when she was 7.

According to Jaiden's father, Rick Hughes, Jaiden started distributing her book earlier in the year to raise funds for dog food for the animal shelter, and she quickly had trouble keeping up with demand. Writing books for a fundraiser was a perfect fit for Jaiden.

"She loves two things: taking care of animals and writing books," said Hughes.

Hughes said that his daughter has been writing books with original plots and illustrations since she was 5 and that she often talks "like she's 29." 

Since Jaiden has raised over $150 from her book sales, she and her family plan to make a donation to the animal shelter soon. Because Jaiden wants to become a veterinarian someday, she decided to donate half of the proceeds from "Respect the Dogs!" to the animal shelter and is saving the other half for a college fund for herself. Hughes that he asked Jaiden if she would prefer to buy food or give them money. After debating about how fun it would be to present a giant check to the shelter, Jaiden decided to go to the store and buy bags of dog food for the shelter.

Jaiden has her own chicken farm and raises eggs by herself. When a neighbor dog injured one of her chickens and nearly killed it, Jaiden nursed the chicken back to health and repaired its broken leg and wing. The chicken is now laying eggs again and hops around on one foot, according to Jaiden.

"She does all the work," said Hughes.

Jaiden also raises a miniature dachshund, a Labrador retriever mix, and rabbits, and said that she wants a horse, a cow, and a pig. She enjoys taking care of the animals and is very responsible, according to her father.

"She's a hard worker," said Hughes. "She's not afraid of anything."

Next week, Jaiden will be helping local veterinarian Dr. Robert Sharp for a day in his office, which will help her prepare for her dream career as a veterinarian. Hughes said that since, like Jaiden, Dr. Sharp is a veterinarian and writer, he thought they would work well together.

Jaiden is currently writing a book to raise money for the Highland County Fair. At this point, the book is 20 pages long and includes four chapters, showing how much her writing has matured since she published her eight-page "Respect the Dogs!" book.

Jaiden is still selling copies of her book "Respect the Dogs!" To purchase a copy, call (937) 927-5385 and leave a message, and the Hughes family will send you a book.

See this week's Highland County Press for more on this story.