By DeVida Johnson | Event and Outreach Manager
Project POOCH was thrilled to host GlobalGiving staff members, Donna Callejon and Jacqueline Lee this past month!
Donna and Jacqueline were greeted with beautiful Portland weather. Perfect for visiting our site! Project POOCH’s kennel is located inside MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility. Visiting required a bit of walking since our kennel is on the far side of MacLaren’s campus. The weather couldn’t have cooperated better.
Joining us in the visit were Project POOCH founder and executive director, Joan Dalton, and Project POOCH board members Roxanne Thomas and Tom Lang.
When we arrived at the kennel, the youth had gathered, and welcomed us into the Engelhard Education Center (a structure youth originally built). It was wonderful listening to each of them share their story, their experience at Project POOCH, and what it means to them. They shared in detail what their responsibilities are at the kennel – responsibilities that range from feeding, cleaning, grooming, socializing, training, and of course, loving, the dogs, to creating the dogs’ marketing flyers, inventorying food supply, repairing concrete sidewalks, and tracking each doggie resident and their scheduled visits with potential adopters.
I know I was beaming with pride as they each in turn spoke about the dog they are working with, what challenges they’re facing with that dog’s training, and what successes they’ve experienced. As always, and as they’ve been taught by our founder and executive director, Joan Dalton, they were extremely polite, well spoken, kind, and professional. They even offered each of us coffee when we first walked in! They are truly learning to be gentlemen in every sense of the word!
Seeing our project through the youths' eyes as they explain it to others is so rewarding and heartwarming. It is a validation of their hard work and our investment in them as people, not offenders.
Donna, GlobalGiving Chief Business Officer, had this to say about her experience:
"It was inspiring to see Project POOCH in action and to visit with five young men who described how the program is giving them skills and hope, as they complete their time at MacLaren."
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It is wonderful to see the staff at GlobalGiving take such a personal interest in projects such as ours. Their personal touch and commitment to ensuring projects on GlobalGiving are vetted adds so much value to our participation in GlobalGiving’s platform. They ensure your generous donations are going to causes that are truly changing the world. In our case, one dog at a time……
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