Rachel May, 17, of Saugus, and Rachel McCarthy, 13, of Nahant, haven’t met. But each girl — in her own way — has worked to benefit the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem.

Last winter and spring, May volunteered at the shelter cleaning kennels and walking dogs.

“It was relaxing to go there and hang out with all the dogs and wind down after a long day,’’ said May, now a senior and president of Saugus High School’s National Honor Society.

But she wanted to do more.

As part of the MIT Leadership Training Institute — a program for high school students that helps develop leadership skills — she was asked to plan a large community service project.

She knew just the one. With experience in the Relay for Life and the North Shore Cancer Walk, she organized Stroll for Strays, enlisting a committee of about 20 fellow honor society members from Saugus.

The event took place at Breakheart Reservation in June, raising $2,000for the Northeast Animal Shelter.

May, who has two cats, said she worked mostly with dogs at the shelter but wants to return and take care of the felines.

“I love my cats, she said. “They’re my best friends.’’

McCarthy started a donation drive in her Nahant neighborhood for the shelter four years ago, when she was just 9.

“I wanted to help but I wasn’t old enough to volunteer,’’ said McCarthy, who herself has a dog, two cats, a guinea pig, and a frog.

“I thought of doing a donation drive,’’ she said.

McCarthy distributed flyers asking people to help and “leave the donations at the front door or on the porch and I’d come back and collect them.’’

Items included dog food, paper towels, laundry detergent, office supplies, and more.

Northeast Animal Shelter is one of New England’s largest no-kill facilities. Receiving no local, state, or federal funding, it depends on private donations and contributions.

This year, McCarthy said, was her best yet, saying the collections “filled the back of my dad’s pickup truck and the back seat, too.

“It makes me feel good when I am able to help out,’’ she said. “I think it’s great that [animals that are adopted] are able to come from a terrible place and get into a great home and live their life as they should.’’

Wendy Killeen

Wendy Killeen can be reached at wdkilleen@gmail.com.