Dixon Elementary School’s (Brookfield, WI) Brownie Troop 8019 selected Pets Helping People to partner with for their Take Action project, a project designed to teach the girls about becoming involved within their community and helping others. The girls wanted to do an animal-focused project, and through a connection with Congregational Home in Brookfield, found an organization that helps both animals AND people in need!
For the project co-leaders Stefani Seidemann and Lauren Sinclair devised a three-step approach: “Learn, Do, Help”:
- For “Learn”, the girls attended a Pets’ training session where the girls got to see how “Student” dogs and their owners learn how to become therapy dogs. The girls even got to be “junior trainers” for the evening.
- The “Do” step was a recent trip to Clement Manor Senior Living Center (Greendale, WI) where the girls partnered with an owner/dog and actually participated in the Senior Therapy presentation. They spent time with the dogs and the residents for this special event, and were able to witness how pets help people first hand.
- For “Help” the girls assisting Pets Helping People with a fundraiser dinner held at Parkside23 (Brookfield) on Thursday June 5th. The girls created and shared posters with their classrooms and helped to distribute flyers to spread the word regarding this event.
The project spanned a number of months during which time the girls have become very special to the organization.
“It’s been an honor and privilege to be able to help such a neat group of young people. We can’t thank them and their co-leaders for all they’ve given us – smiles, best behavior, silly antics, and amazing youthful insights. We have kind-of adopted these girls and they have become our own little rooting section. I am certain we will invite them to many future Pets’ events.”
–Terry, Pets Helping People Volunteer
