Avery: Pawsitive Change Maker

If you haven’t met Avery Sontheimer yet, you are missing out on the most selfless soul in our community. 

At only 15 years old, she is one of the biggest donors and a frequent volunteer to the A.N.N.A. Shelter in Erie, PA. You’ve more than likely dropped your spare change in one of her many collection jars around Corry and other nearby towns and she makes that change go a long way. 

Avery plans to open a shelter of her own someday right here in Corry, but in the meantime, she is learning from those at the A.N.N.A. Shelter and constantly planning or thinking about her next fundraiser idea to support shelter animals. 

As a current volunteer, Avery can typically be found cleaning the cat kennels, loving on the animals, and lending a hand wherever is needed. She’s eager to help and willing to take on any task, knowing she’ll use all of these skills in her own shelter one day. 

“Seeing that I helped an animal and made a difference,” she says is something that can instantly make her day better. 

In one of her most recent fundraisers, Avery made and sold Christmas tree bulbs and shipped them to donors in time for the holiday to be able to create stockings to give to the shelter animals. She sold over 100 ornaments. 

And she already has plans for her next fundraiser which will be Valentine’s Day themed. 

When she’s not in the midst of a fundraiser, she’s thinking about the details of the next. To say she’s a remarkable young woman is an understatement. 

But her selflessness became irrefutable during the summer of 2020. 

While the rest of the world faced the still unknown with COVID-19, Avery was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer that occurs in the bones and cartilage. 

She had to give up the hobbies and sports she loved, and her teammates, family, and friends created #AveryStrong to support her. You would be hard-pressed to attend a local event without seeing the bright seafoam green shirts many from the community purchased to rally behind her as well. And although she could no longer run or play basketball, she wouldn’t give up supporting local animal shelters. People from all over heard her story and donated to her mission. 

From her hospital bed, she collected donations and Walmart gift cards and sent them out with handwritten letters to different animal shelters throughout the country. 

Over $25,000 and 2,000 letters later, Avery was awarded a “Hero to Animals Award” from PETA and wasn’t even close to being done. 

“I got to Make-A-Wish and I wished for a mobile pet food pantry. And I just go to different locations and collect donations and I give all the donations to the A.N.N.A. Shelter.” 

She says it so casually, like there was absolutely nothing else the then 14-year-old could have possibly wished for. 

When she received the mobile pet food pantry almost 10 months ago, Avery was finishing rounds of chemo and radiation to her lungs and pelvis. Now she’s a happy girl working on yet another fundraiser, with as her mom, Kim, put it, “hair finally growing back that she’s not in love with just yet.” 

But then she shows that smile. 

While talking about the animals and being able to give them a second chance, the plans she has to continue her one mission to help those in shelters, that slightly sheepish grin turns quickly to an undeniably infectious smile. 

Her braces, still red and green from the holiday season. 

Her eyes with a sparkle only kids who are up to something have. “Even if you do something small, it can make a big change,” she says. 

This kid is definitely up to something. 

Photos by Karrie Garde

Whether it’s a blanket fundraiser, or local event where she collects donations, or virtual 5K (that was so far her favorite fundraiser to plan because of all the details involved), she’s definitely up to something all for the benefit of shelter animals looking for their forever homes. 

As she gathers her things to leave our interview space, she looks back at me and says, “Thank you for thinking of me.” 

Young lady, with all you have done and all you are still yet to do, as you constantly think of others, we will continually be in awe while thinking of you. 

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Since the writing and publication of this feature in February 2022, Avery is once again fighting against cancer. She also once again has our entire community standing with her and her family as they aggressively take on this illness. If you would like to follow Avery’s journey and support her mission, please visit Avery’s Pawsitive Change on Facebook. We are #AveryStrong.