This was another active week for me, beginning at Faith on Sunday morning. With new families coming to church, it’s always fun to be introduced to new people, especially kids.
My first visit was to a school district in one of the northern suburbs. I was part of the school’s de-stressing program. There was one other comfort dog with me. I was visited by small groups of teachers after regular school hours. They all enjoyed petting me. Then I went to another school: a middle school in a western suburb. Staff from LCC made a presentation to the students and teachers to describe the comfort dog mission. There were four comfort dogs at this event. I was assigned to a classroom. We were able to talk more about the comfort dog mission as groups of students stopped at our room.
My remaining visits for the week had a more serious overtone. First, I went with a large number of comfort dogs to the Milwaukee area to participate in a prayer vigil. This was organized to remember the 6 employees killed at a local brewery on Wednesday. We met at a local church to provide support for the families affected by this tragedy. I then had another emergency request to go to one of the high schools in a far northwestern suburb because a student had committed suicide on Thursday. The students were not at school, but the teachers were there. I was stationed in a busy school corridor. Many teachers came by and stopped to pet me. A number of teachers came by two or three times. They seemed comforted by my presence. I will likely be invited back to this school.
It’s hard to imagine what we will be asked to do in any week ahead. All we can do is thank the Lord for the chance to help people of all ages.
Be in touch. Peace!