Saint Francis Service Dogs

On Saturday September 26 I went to Saint Francis Service Dog facility in Roanoke. This organization trains and cares for service dogs, that will help people with mental or physical disabilities (not including deafness or blindness). If they pass the training and program they will provide these people with much needed support, assistance, and love. While we were there we meet one of their dogs, JoJo, a yellow lab. When we first arrived we listened to one of the employees explain everything about the organization and service dogs; how the organization started, what they do, how the dogs are trained. Then we put together goody bags for their upcoming dogtoberfest; an event where families can bring their dogs for fun games. Then we put together garbage cans that were also going to be used for dogtoberfest.

This service project taught me a lot about service dogs and how they benefit the people who get them. I expected it to be a smaller organization and facility, but they had multiple buildings and planned on starting a new project. I also expected their to be multiple dogs. I was a little sad when we only got to see one dog, but it was nice to focus on JoJo. Near my hometown there was a large seeing eye dog organization, so I had been to a couple presentations about dogs that serve the blind. I thought it was interesting to hear how the service dogs are trained differently. I also wished that we could have done more work or service involving the dogs, but I realized that the small acts we did support the organization, which helps train the dogs and send them to people who need them. When we assembled the garbage cans and put together the gift bags we had organized an assembly line with everyone involved. We planned out who would do what, therefore making the process more efficient. I realized how much work the people who work with dogs and at the organization do. They spend a lot of their time training the dogs, as it takes about 2 years to train 1 dog. I thought about how many people that could benefit from a service

dog in relation to the time it takes to train a dog. I realized that there are still many people in need, but the process takes a while. Though the rain had enabled us to do all the work that had been planned, we still helped.

I would love to return to Saint Francis. Since my major is Animal and Poultry science, I found this service project very interesting. I have always thought about involving my major and service, so I think getting involved with service dogs is a great opportunity. Not only is this organization helping and caring for people with disabilities, but dogs. Our group had mentioned that we could go back during the week when they have more dogs and help out again.