Red Ribbon Week

I have a pretty special assignment on the PTO board at the girls school. I am the Chairperson for Red Ribbon Week. Although its a LOT of preparation, I really do enjoy it a lot. By the time this week was over, I had reached over 40 hours of volunteer time at the school...  only a month and a half into the school year!

One of the funnest days during the week is our Cop Day. We have a dad at the school who is a Sergeant.  He helps me out every Year with Red Ribbon Week.  He pulls together his posse of cops and brings them to spend the day at our school.  When I say spend the 'day', I mean it. They were there ALL day for us. These guys have become my friends. I run the program and they help me out... it ends up being a great day for everyone.  This year we had: SWAT, K-9, Motorcycle Cop, DARE, and Cars.

Our K-9 unit did a whole presentation on his dog, Trigger and what they do. I was truly amazed.

Here are some things that I learned about the K-9 unit.

-the dog lives with the cop, his partner, 24/7

-the dog cost $10,000.00

-they speak to the dogs in their native language. In this case, Czech.

-when a dog dies, the cop partner has to take a leave of absence to grieve.

-dogs are programmed for family mode and work mode.

-the k-9 truck is temperature sensitive and will alert the cop by remote if the truck gets too warm or cold for the dog.

I could not believe how well behaved this dog was. It was truly unbelievable. When not in work mode, Trigger was the sweetest dog. Very kid friendly.

While we were waiting for the second group of kids to come out for the presentation, we were just hanging out in the SWAT van chatting away. It was a HUGE success this year and i'm so glad it went well... and that it's over... till next year. :-)