EAR FALLS -- There was no shortage of smiles and wagging tails on Sunday in Ear Falls.
The Ear Falls Lions Club held its 10th annual Walk for Dog Guides, which helped raised $8,814.68.
More than 38 people came out for the walk, which is the biggest turn out recorded. This included some of Kylie Sutton’s third and fourth grade classes that had raised $4,390.25.
This walk is put on by the Lions Club to raise money for dog guides to be bred, trained, and provided to people with disabilities at no cost to them.
“This is the best year for the dog walk in terms of fundraising, due largely to the kids,” says event organizer Joanne Kay.
Dog guides are trained to support people with disabilities in their daily lives. The Lions Foundation of Canada train dogs for people with vision impairments, hearing impairments, physical disabilities, autism, diabetes, seizures, and Post Traumatic Stress.
The Kay family have a personal connection with the dog guides program, as their son Matthew had his own service dog. They got their dog, Secret, in 2011 when Matthew was five years old.
Secret is a black Labrador that was trained to help Matthew who has Autism. Her training was to be tethered to Matthew to prevent him from running away.
“She’s saved his life a zillion times, and became Matthew’s best friend,” says Kay.
Kay and her husband Bill learned about the dog guides program a few months following their son’s diagnosis from a former Lions club member, Earl Keller in 2010.
There is typically a two-year waitlist to receive a dog guide, but due to someone else dropping out of the program, the Kays were able to get Secret six months after applying. This meant flying to Toronto to the training centre for a week to match and train with their dog guide.
Service dogs are allowed to go everywhere with their handlers except for food handling facilities and NICU’s. Secret and Matthew would go everywhere together, she even went to school with him from Grades 5-8. As he started high school, Matthew and his parents decided that he no longer needed her to accompany him to school.
“Service dogs are more popular now, but in the early days we got some dubious looks,” says Kay.
Secret has now retired from her active working role after 11 years; but the Kays chose to adopt her from The Lions Foundation of Canada as she is still a big part of their family. Secret has had a calming effect on Matthew and helped teach him not to run away. Joanne said that they had the option to get another service dog; and though, she said they would do it again in a heartbeat. Matthew, now 17 years old, wouldn’t benefit from another dog guide as much as a young 5-year-old. The wait lists are too long for new applicants as it is, due to the huge demand for dog guides across Canada.
