For decades, Iowa Central Community College has worked to help address the health care needs of the area by training generations of nurses, paramedics and X-ray technicians.

Now the college is moving to help meet the health care needs of all the animals in the region. Because northern Iowa is an agricultural area, there is a lot of livestock that needs some veterinary attention. Plus there are all the dogs, cats, hamsters, birds and other pets that are members of so many local families.

The college’s relatively new veterinary technician program received a huge boost recently from a local business that is deeply invested in the health of pets – Nestle Purina PetCare.

Through its Purina Foundation, that company recently donated $30,000 to the Iowa Central veterinary program. A $30,000 donation is a very large donation. As the saying goes, that is real money.

That money will be spent to purchase supplies and equipment for the veterinary technician program. It will pay for what are called industry-standard tools so that students will train with the same equipment they will use in veterinary offices when they start their career. Teaching students with the same things they will use in the workplace is good training that will enable the students to step right in and start contributing on their first day on the job.

There is a waiting list of people wishing to enroll in the veterinary technician program. We expect the program will really start growing in a couple of years when it has permanent space in the Center for Ag Science that is to be built on the Fort Dodge campus.

Donating to a veterinary program is a natural thing for Nestle Purina PetCare. The company has a plant in Fort Dodge that makes the Friskies brand of wet cat food. Cats across the country have been chowing down on the delicacies produced in that plant for 50 years.

That plant is expected to begin making some Fancy Feast wet cat food next year. A major expansion project is underway to enable that production.

With a single donation, Nestle Purina has improved the training of the people who will take care of livestock and pets for decades to come.

This gift will send trained technicians to the farms and to the offices of local veterinarians. It will have lasting impact.

Nestle Purina has a track record of supporting the community. Previous recipients of gifts from the company include the Domestic and Sexual Assault Outreach Center, the Bark Park at First Avenue South and 12th Street, Almost Home Humane Society of North Central iowa and Linking Families and Communities.

We are grateful to have such a generous corporate citizen in our midst.