By Marty Trese, KnoxPages.com Editor
MOUNT VERNON – MVMS teacher Trudy Debolt’s 6th grade Engilsh class spent this past school year studying about scout dogs in Vietnam. They read the book Cracker: the Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata. They also wrote letters to Vietnam veterans and a Vietnam scout dog handler spoke to the class. The class even raised $1600 to send to South Carolina for dog training. WAGS, Working Dog Awareness Group Students, was formed. Part of their mission statement reads: “The purpose of WAGS is to honor the lives of those animals who have worked or are working with our military and government. 4,000 military dogs were sent to Vietnam during the war. Of those 4,000 working dogs, only 205 were brought back to the states. WAGS pledges to never forget the sacrifices those dogs made for our country and for Vietnam. In honor of those dogs, our group will do whatever is necessary to better the lives of animals in our own community.”
One of the ways they are bettering the lives of those animals is by reading to them this summer. It’s cats at the cat shelter on Tuesdays and dogs at the animal shelter on Fridays. 25 students will be taking turns reading. Friday morning Debolt brought her students to the Knox County Animal Shelter. Its a win-win situation, the students keep reading over the summer and the dogs get companionship. Debolt says the dogs were barking when the student readers arrived but within five minutes the canines settled down and were listening intently to the stories. Debolt said, “We don’t want to put the shelter out of business but we certainly want to make the dogs more adoptable.”
The animal shelter had a population of 15 dogs as of Friday afternoon. They are all up for adoption. Shelter hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The shelter is always looking for volunteers to help with walking the dogs and donations are always welcome.
Students read to the dogs at the Knox County Animal Shelter Friday morning. Pictured are, left to right, Bianca Fajardo, Christine Bell, Odalys Fajardo, Lakelyn Parnell, Trudy Debolt, Madisenne Pope – Photo by Phil Samuell used with permission
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