Year_Review

Belated Holiday Greetings to all pet partners and those interested in doing volunteer work that will truly touch your soul.

I thought as we began 2010 it would be wonderful to remember all that our teams have accomplished in 2009. You all make such a difference with your wonderful animals and have touched so many lives.

We had many community events we were invited to this last year:

Kalediscope: Children’s Educational Fair: February 2009: Organized chaos and our teams handled it beautifully. The children and their parents loved meeting our beautiful animals.
NMU Health Fair: February 2009: This was our 4^th year and the students LOVED seeing our dogs. They miss their own pets and visiting with ours is good medicine. On top of that we were voted 1^st place for our table!
MGH Presentation on Pet Therapy by The Upper Michigan Dog Therapy Partnership: April 2009: Some of our teams were invited to this event that was attended by health care professionals. More confirmation that animals are indeed therapeutic.
4-C’s Children’s Health Fair: April 2009: We were again invited (3^rd year) to participate in this lovely event at the Westwood Mall. This fair promotes all things positive for children. To have our wonderful teams asked to participate is always an honor. To interact with the children is such a pleasure.
Mental Health Fair at Peter White Library: May 2009: Maggie McDivitt was instrumental in getting our group invited to this special event. Our teams visited with many people that day and everyone had a great time.
MGH Hospital Week: May of 2009: This year we were invited to the Skywalk as well as the Medical Center. Staff, visitors and patients really enjoyed the interaction.
4^th of July Parade: This was a lot of work both before and during the parade (VERY fast pace!!) but the crowds loved the dogs and we got 1^st place for best community group!
Bay Cliff: August 2009: Our experience each year at Bay Cliff will heal anyone’s soul. These very special children interact with our animals on a level that gives you goose bumps. If you haven’t done this yet try to plan for it in 2010. It will be something you will never forget.
Marquette Kennel Club weekend information table: This was a wonderful opportunity again to share with the public what pet therapy is and tell people how they can get involved. The Marquette Kennel Club again offered us a table and our dogs drew in the public. Great fun was had by all.
Pet Care presentation at the Assembly of God Church in Ishpeming: 2 presentations: September/October 2009): This was a first time invitation to our group. This wonderful church wanted to do a presentation on how we interact with animals and how God expects them to be treated. Our group was asked to bring some of our teams in by a member of their congregation. It was a privilege to participate and great fun.
EMS Regional Conference: October 2009: We unfortunately had lower participation this year but those teams that attended were very much appreciated by all EMS staff who wanted to learn basic and advanced pet first aide. We need to take pride in helping train people who may help our pets at the site of an accident some day.
Bite Prevention Program at Peter White Library: We were asked to participate in this event by the Marquette Kennel Club. Any opportunity to teach bite prevention using our exceptional animals is a special honor.
Bite Prevention Program at North Star Academy: April and November 2009: Karen Anderson again had asked us to do presentations at her school in April and November. We had the special treat of having Karen’s cat Dusty, our first certified pet partner cat at the November presentation. He was a star and was featured by TV 6! Teaching children about bite prevention is such a gift back to the community and the kids really seemed to appreciate meeting our animals.

In addition our group was highlighted by the media and in print:

Marquette General featured many of our teams in a specially printed calendar for 2009. This calendar was wildly popular and sold out quickly. It proved the popularity of our wonderful dog teams.
The Marquette Monthly Journal did an article about pet therapy and highlighted our group in the spring of 2009.
In October we had the opportunity to present an article on the Healing Power of Pets in the Health and Happiness journal a quarterly UP magazine. We have had quite a few inquires re pet therapy since that article was printed. The invitation to contribute to this journal was because the editor met some of our teams and was very impressed.

Personal Team Recognition:

UP Pet Volunteer of the Year was awarded (for the second time) to Mary Lee Kirkum and Summer. Congratulations for this well earned recognition Mary Lee!!
TV 6 pet therapy piece on the 1^st pet therapy cat team in Marquette County: Karen Anderson and Dusty! It is so exciting to have cat teams now. Way to go Karen!

Team Loss’s:

Mary Lee lost her 2^nd therapy dog Paige in February of 2009. Paige brought smiles to many faces as a therapy dog. Her daughter Summer has stepped in and is following in her mother’s foot steps.

Jo Gerrish also lost her therapy dog Gracie in 2009. Gracie was just getting started in her therapy dog career and had already left her mark with her visits to Brookridge and her participation in the 4^th of July Parade. Jo will be getting her show dog Willie certified in 2010. We look forward to working with them!

Individual Team volunteering continues in many venues:

MGH continues to have teams visit which is always appreciated by the hospital. Our teams go to practically all units including Psych, ICU, CCU, Medical, Pediatrics, Rehab and the surgical waiting rooms. The teams also visit hospital staff in offices as well.

Local nursing homes also benefited in 2009 from individual team visits. The Jacobetti Veterans Home is particularly fond of our dog teams.

Ed Anderson and Arlo have done individual work on projects with the Masons.

Mary Lee Kirkum has done several bite presentations through her affiliation with the Marquette Kennel Club. This is a great collaboration between a wonderful local dog club and a talented certified Delta team.

2009 Testing:

We tested 4 different times in 2009: Current teams volunteered to help in each of the tests which was so very much appreciated.

We tested a total of 24 new teams. Not all processed their paperwork but those who did have become part of our group and are already doing wonderful work!

In summary, 2009 was a busy and fruitful year. Our group, the Superior Land Pet Partners and our individual teams continue to make a difference in Marquette County. Our teams have brought smiles and laughter to people who truly needed a healing encounter.

The gift of therapeutic interaction with our very special animals is something you as handlers have given back to your community.

Those of you who yet to become certified have unlimited opportunities to “make a difference” with your animals when you become certified in 2010.

Here’s hoping 2010 will be as wonderful as 2009.

May you all have a Happy and Peaceful New Year,

Patty and Pog

PS: We have our 1^st two invitations for 2010! Mark your calendars for:

The NMU Health Fair: Tuesday February 9 from 10 am to 3 pm.
Kaleidoscope: Educational Children’s Fair: Saturday February 20^th
from 12 noon to 4 pm.