My heart is always warmed and filled with a real feeling of overflowing love, acceptance, and hope whenever I read or witness kindness and support being offered God’s precious creations. When children are learning to lend a hand to those in need, such as our deaf, blind dogs, these wonderful feelings pour like a magnificent waterfall placed smack dab in the middle of the most beautiful types of kindness, love, and acceptance.
No matter our age, all of us can learn from these incredible preschool students to open our hearts and do whatever we can to help and save others, no matter what.
Sit! Read! Enjoy!
Elsie is a three-year-old deaf and partially blind Dalmatian who was “unadoptable” until That Place Called Home (CA) diligently worked to locate her forever home located clear across the country.
Preschool raises money for blind, deaf dogs
Article from the Daily Journal, April 7, 2021
Kevin Jenkins, Managing Editor
https://dailyjournalonline.com/
Children attending Farmington Presbyterian Church's Window Tree Preschool received plenty of warmhearted entertainment Thursday morning courtesy of several furry friends who, along with their handlers, dropped by the preschool to celebrate a very special occasion.
That day marked the conclusion of Window Tree Preschool's third "Pennies for Puppies" fundraiser for "Speak St. Louis," a rescue organization for Australian Shepherds that specializes in promoting double merle awareness.
The term "double merle" refers to a dog bred by two merle-colored parents. Most people are unaware that when two merles of any breed are bred together, each puppy has a 25% chance of being born as a double merle.
Born with excessive white coloration, these dogs are known to have eye abnormalities, hearing impairments or sometimes both. Double merle puppies are often dumped into shelters or left to fend for themselves by careless breeders.
Common breeds with the merle trait include Australian Shepherds, Border Collies, Catahoula Leopards, Chihuahuas, Collies, Dachshunds, and Great Danes, among others.
While the dogs may have been unable to see or hear very well, they were masters at giving and receiving love and attention from the excited children, workers and parents who filled the room with laughter and squeals of delight.
The children gently petted and held their special guests as their faces beamed with happiness.
"We have been doing this since 2019," said Preschool Director Tammy Moriarty. "One of our teachers that used to work here adopted a dog through them. We've been raising money for them. We collect as many pennies, nickels, dimes — anything we can — every spring for them."
Moriarty explained that the children are given empty Parmesan cheese containers in which to collect money for the rescue.
"Every morning we spend about 15 minutes counting whatever money they bring in — so, we're working on counting too and we're learning about different coins," she said. Then at the end, we take it all to the bank and cash it in so we don't have to give them a thousand pounds of coins."
This year, the children raised a total of $1,191.43 for Speak St. Louis.
"I think our first year we maybe had $400 or $500 and we've just gotten bigger and bigger every year," Moriarty said. "That's a lot of pennies! We're just so glad the kids can raise money for something and see where their money is going. We always like to do things like that."
As the children gathered around to present the check to Judy Duhr of Speak St. Louis, tears began welling up in her eyes.
"It means a lot to us," she said. "We haven't been able to do any events or anything since COVID started, so it's amazing. These kids are so kind and it helps us to help a lot more dogs with special needs."