One boy's good deeds go a long way

Make no mistake about it. Ten-year-old Matt Mirakaj is an animal lover.

PHOTOS BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Ten-year-old Matt Mirakaj gets a kiss from an employee's pet dog during a visit to the Jersey Shore Animal Center on Sunday. The fourth-grader delivered a number of items on the shelter's wish list. He is flanked by Susan Richmond, the shelter's public relations director. The fourth-grader spends a lot of time taking care of his dog Max, his guinea pig Charlie, his two miniature dwarf frogs Bullet and Jack, a bird named Starling and three fish in the Brick home he shares with his mother Valerie and father Daniel.

But Matt, a student at Holy Family School in Lakewood, took his love for animals one step further recently when he decided to do a community-service project for the Jersey Shore Animal Center on Brick Boulevard.

"We've been here once when he was little," his mother said. "He loves the animals and he wants to help them."

Matt has been a member of the A. Kastner's Family Taekwondo in Brielle since he was 4. He's already working on his black belt. Kastner's requires that each candidate perform some type of community service project before he or she moves on to the next level, his father said.

Fourth-grader Matt Mirakaj visits with Radish, a tabby, at the Jersey Shore Animal Center on Brick Boulevard. Matt, a student at Holy Family School in Lakewood, collected donations for the shelter as part of his community service project with the A. Kastner's Family Taekwondo in Brielle. "They focus on a lot of the traditional values," Daniel Mirakaj said. "One of the requirements for the kids is to do community service. That's one of the reasons we have him there."

Matt made up fliers that described the animal shelter's monthly wish list and distributed them at his school and in his Brick neighborhood in early February.

His hard work paid off.

Matt and his parents trundled in a truckload of goodies for the shelter on Sunday afternoon. Shelter workers quickly carted off the cat food, dog food, blankets, sheets, bleach, cat litter, paper towels and cleaning supplies, all donated by Matt's fellow fourthgraders and neighbors.

"It makes me really happy, and I like helping animals," he said, as he sat on the floor in the shelter's "roaming cat" room, stroking Radish, a tabby, while the other cats swarmed around him.

Shelter community-relations director Susan Richmond said the staff was grateful for Matt's efforts and donations.

"We'd like to thank him for giving the donations to the shelter and for his kindness to animals," Richmond said. "It's nice to see children want to help the animals. We very much appreciate it."

The donations are especially welcome since the shelter officials recently learned that Comcast would not be able to televise the shelter's annual telethon because of staff cutbacks. The event was the biggest fundraiser of the year, she said.

Matt and his parents will still be collecting items on the wish list for the next several weeks. "We're very proud of him," his mother said.

The boy already asked about volunteering at the shelter but will have to wait until he is 16. Matt and his family toured the shelter after they deposited the donations Sunday. He spent part of his visit trying to talk his mother into bringing home one of the rabbits up for adoption.