High school group raises guide dogs for the blind
Thanks to the support from school officials, a group of students at Southwest High School is giving back to the community by raising guide dogs for the blind.
Malei Tipton, a senior at Southwest High School, was at a leadership conference when she saw other students with guide dogs. When she was told that those students were raising the dogs for the blind, she knew that this was a great way to help the community. “And I just thought that that was really fascinating. That we’re able to give back to our community in such a large scale effort like that, ” said Tipton.
After a two year process, Tipton and fellow students Isabella Dickerson and Alex Calero are currently training three pups to be guide dogs for the blind through their Future Farmers of America group.
Tipton knows that what she and her group is doing will change people’s lives. Tipton said, “But this, I’m really helping somebody. To better their lives. To improve their families. To make the world a happier place so I’m really glad I got to embark on this journey.”
Matt Phillips, Southwest High School Principal said it’s important to embrace ideas from students. “They made it happen. And so it’s real empowerment when a student has an idea, gets support and see it come to fruition. You know a great life lesson, ” said Phillips.
Raising the guide dogs takes commitment and sacrifice. Kristin Mayo, a teacher at Southwest High School said , ” All the efforts and busyness of their lives. They’re athletes , AP, IB students. And they gave a lot of their personal time to these puppies and so the whole effort of that and the whole reason behind that is to be able to hand these dogs over dogs over in 15 months to a person in need.”
Letting go of the dogs that they’ve raised for over a year won’t be easy. One of the trainers, Isabella Dickerson said,”It will be really hard. But then I have that spot in me that knows he’s going to someone that does need him.”
One student hopes that the program can expand. Alex Calero, another trainer said, “Everybody wants to do this project. It’s going to become a big thing. We’re already training a new group of batch of kids and they want to get their own guide dogs so I think it can grow and be a big thing.”
The school hopes to graduate the guide dogs at the end of next semester.
