Easter Sunday at South Dade Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center

Today Jonah, Maia, and Marti along with Sammy and Bernie visited the South Dade Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center. It is Easter Sunday and many of the residents celebrate Easter so we also brought an Easter basket with candy. We left it at the front desk because many of the residents have dietary restrictions. We had a lot of fun and visited several people. Here are a few pictures.

Happy Passover and Happy Easter everyone!

Our Visit to South Dade Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center

Today we took Sammy and Bernie to the South Dade Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center. We had a wonderful visit with many of the residents there. So many of the people shared their stories about having pets. Here are some photos from our visit. Sammy and Bernie were so gentle with these folks but after about an hour, they were pooped and slept all the way home.

Maia's and Bernie's First Visit

On Wednesday, February 27th we met with the 2nd and 3rd graders. This week, Maia got to go along with Marti, Sammy, and Bernie. This was Maia's and Bernie's first visit. Woo hoo! We read, Little Miss Spider and then we talked about pets and who has what. One boy had a flying squirrel. Others had cats and dogs.

Here's a picture of Bernie getting his belly rubbed. Looks like he's really enjoying this therapy dogs stuff. Maia did a fantastic job on her first visit as well. She's a real natural.

Today's Visit to Coral Reef Elementary

Today was Jonah's first official therapy dog visit at Coral Reef Elementary School. We met with the kindergarten and first graders who come to school for "before care." We met with them from 7:30 a.m. - 8:00 a.m. They loved the dogs and we also read them an interactive story using our iPad. The story was about an otter named Edwin.  Edwin did not feel he was special so he tried to be special by making and wearing a red cape. The other sea creatures did not like the red cape and preferred Edwin just the way he was because Edwin was nice, kind, and helpful. The interactive story was a free download from iTunes from the Seattle Aquarium.

Here's a picture of Jonah with Sammy and Bernie in the front breezeway of the school.

Career Day at Coral Reef Elementary School

Today I went to Coral Reef Elementary School to participate in their career day. Here I am with Sammy in the Pre-K class. We had a lot of fun and Sammy did such a good job! He let the kids pet him and he showed them how he could sit, stay, and come on command. Right now, he's exhausted. We were there from 9 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. and visited five classrooms!

It's official!

It's official. Today we received our member packets from Therapy Dogs International and we are good to go with scheduling our therapy dog visits. As a warmup, I (Marti) will be going to Coral Reef Elementary School tomorrow to participate in Career Day. While volunteering isn't my full time career, I plan to talk about how volunteering is an important aspect of many professions. For example, in my career as a professor, I focus my efforts in three distinct areas: teaching, research, and service. The service piece can be subdivided into service to the university, service to the profession, and service to the community. My work with therapy dogs is how I provide service to my community. Sammy, our Wheaten Terrier mix, will join me tomorrow as I speak to students from Pre-K to 5th grade about my career and my volunteer efforts!

More to come :-)

Marti