School Teaches Students About 9/11 With Service Dog

Ellwood City’s North Side Primary School has “service learning projects” scheduled throughout the year to teach the students about their community.

Today at the primary school, Jessica Herr, an AmeriCorp worker, set up a service learning project to introduce the students to the tragic events that took place in New York City on September 11, 2001.

To help make it a positive learning experience Herr introduced Melissa Parker, a rescue dog handler to the event.

“Rather than introducing the kids in a scary fashion, we thought we center the conversation around the heroes involved in 9/11,” said Herr.  “We focused on emphasizing the impact the responding police, fireman, and rescue dogs had on the event.”

Melissa brought her dog, Daisy, a 4 year old Dogo Argentino, so the students could meet a real life rescue dog. Melissa and Daisy are part of the AMRG (Allegheny Mountain Rescue Group) which is a completely non-profit volunteer search and rescue team.

Daisy has been on many search missions over the years, she is specifically trained to search and rescue in woodland areas, whereas some rescue dogs are trained specifically for urban areas.

Jessica eased into telling the students about the happenings of 9/11 by first asking the students what they should do if they are lost, then she explained what Daisy does, how she does it, and and the importance of rescue dogs.

All of the students had a chance to meet and pet Daisy.

Here at EllwoodCity.org, we think this was a fantastic way to teach the kids about such a tragic event. We would like to know your feelings on it and how you would personally tell your children about 9/11 – feel free to discuss below or on Facebook.

A full gallery of photos will be posted on Monday.