Monroeville school embraces canines during Catholic Schools Week
Share this post:
Monroeville’s Divine Mercy Academy kicks of Catholic Schools Week each year with a Mass at St. Bernadette Church on Sunday, followed by an open house for current and potential families.
The remainder of the week is filled with activities for the students, such as dress up days, treats, games and community service projects, establishing the importance of giving back.
This year, the Roman Catholic school embraced a dog theme to mark the week of Jan 26-Feb.1. Students watched the movies “Space Dogs” and “Inside the Mind of a Dog,” and they collected clean shirts, towels and fleece in order to create and donate rope toys to animal shelters.
Students also had canine visitors. Say It Once therapy dogs visited, and the younger students got to read stories to the dogs. During an American Kennel Club assembly, members of the Loyalhanna Agility Club visited with their show dogs.
Wednesday’s theme was “Celebrating Our Nation.” Students dressed in red, white and blue and wrote letters to active U.S. military, thanking those men and women for their service.
Classrooms collected “Dollars for Dogs” to help raise funds for the Pittsburgh-based Life Changing Service Dogs for Veterans program.
Vietnam veteran and Life Changing Service Dogs for Veterans President Bill Jeffcoat, accompanied by his wife Joanne, visited the school for an assembly on the importance of service dogs for veterans.
“I walk this earth because of a dog,” said the Plum resident Bill, who was a K-9 handler in the Marine Corps.
Bill got involved with Life Changing Service Dogs for Veterans after being invited to a viewing of the series “The Vietnam War” at the Soldiers and Sailors Hall in Oakland. He was wearing his K-9 shirt and was approached by the organization.
“And, as they say, the rest is history,” Joanne said. “He never got away from the military.”
Cofounded by Tony Accamando and George D’Angelo, Life Changing Service Dogs for Veterans is a volunteer run, nonprofit organization that pairs veterans with service dogs from Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs Inc. in Florida.
The dogs are trained to assist veterans with mobility issues, diabetes, epilepsy, as well as disabilities as a result of traumatic brain injuries and/or post-traumatic stress disorder.
According to Jeffcoat, Life Changing Service Dogs for Veterans has raised more than $2 million since its inception in 2015.
“To date, we’ve paired 30 veterans with 30 dogs,” he said, though they’ve raised enough funds for 50 dogs. Veterans are from Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.
It costs $27,000 and takes 1,500 training hours before a service dog can be matched with a recipient. Through donations, grants and fundraisers, Life Changing Service Dogs for Veterans provides the canines at no costs to the veterans.
Retired Army Capt. Tammy Watson attended the assembly with her German shepherd, T.J.
Watson explained that sometimes she has bad dreams, and that T.J. is able to help her. “She can smell a chemical that my body makes when I’m having a nightmare or a panic attack,” she said.
When asked by a student if T.J. will ever go back to being a “regular dog,” Watson explained that she T.J. is a regular dog at home and likes to play.
“This dog is the very best present I’ve ever gotten,” Watson said. “She’s given me my sleep and my life back.”
To tour Divine Mercy Academy, visit dmapgh.org or call 412-372-7255.
For more information or to donate to Life Changing Service Dogs for Veterans, visit padogsforvets.org.