2026’s rainfall has been welcomed by most in southeast Nebraska, especially following the exceedingly dry year prior. All that rainwater needs to go somewhere, though, and at Hearts United for Animals (HUA) north of Auburn, the heavy storms in May proved to release too much rain too fast for the creeks and roads to handle.
In the aftermath of the storms and seeing what erosion needed to be dealt with, the HUA board reached out to Doane University to partner for a second time. The first partnership involved the creation of a prosthetic leg for one of HUA’s dogs, Chappy. Chappy ended up preferring a three-legged life, but the partnership was still good experience for the Doane Engineering students to practice what they’ve learned. The junior engineering class then made a trip to HUA on Thursday, September 17 to make a project out of the rainwater erosion issues plaguing the shelter’s campus.
Doane University Professor Cale Stolle and his EGR 360 Communications in Engineering Practice class brought their surveying equipment down to HUA around 10 a.m. Thursday morning. The class of 12 collected data, took photos and talked to the various staff members until 2 p.m. “The students are broken up into three teams,” Professor Stolle explained, “How they are divided is very similar to how engineering teams work in the real world and, while all their data will be used to determine the best course of action, there is something competition between them to see who can collect the most accurate data.”
The information collected included latitude, longitude and elevation marks which will all be combined to create a map of the campus. Then, inputting the data into an engineering software, the class will be able to see the flow of rainwater and how to divert that flow and keep the roads and rest of the campus much drier during heavy showers.
HUA of Auburn’s Executive Director Kelcie Keeling couldn’t be more excited for the partnership. “We’ve worked with Doane before, and are working on partnering with Purina as well to help improve the diets of our pets.” Keeling emphasized the fact that HUA is a non-profit organization and so any donations and partnerships like that with Doane are more than welcome. “The Wheelers maintained a really great campus here,” Keeling said, “We want to continue that legacy and make sure to address the issues that could and are presenting problems.” HUA hopes to improve the roads on the campus with more rock and gravel, as well as a solution to the runoff issues. And, while it was the HUA board who initiated the contact with Doane, Keeling herself is a graduate of the University, her degree being Mass Communications. “There’s something really special about working with my alma mater to solve these problems.”
The timeline as to when dirt work will begin is still up in the air at this moment. While the Doane Engineering class is doing their best work to come up with a plan for the shelter, that proposal will still need to be validated by professional engineers and a contractor will need to be hired to do the work itself.
