Christina: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Taking the Lead podcast where we empower people to be unstoppable. I'm Christina Hoeppner with my co-host Leslie Haskins and Timothy Kuo, and we have so much going on, coming up with in this new year at Leader Dog. And we have a new event this year. Um, it's local to Rochester, so you have to be, you know, local to the metro Detroit area or travel.
Doing this frozen Paul 5k and it's presented by, um, our Trico, who's one of our corporate sponsors. And I have never been to this, the fire and ice festival in ah, it's so fun. Rochester. Yeah. Yeah. They do a great job. Yeah. So it's during that and we're running the 5k, I guess it used to be a different 5K that used to.
It disbanded and we took it over, which is super cool. Um, and some of my friends that are runners, I'm running it, but some of my friends that are runners were saying like, they used to run it every year. Oh really? Yeah. I didn't know [00:01:00] that many people loved to run in January. I certainly
Leslie: don't. Um, but I'm excited about it.
for you to be running.
Timothy: Makes me want to get a blanket and just sit on my
Leslie: couch. Right. Maybe I'll meet Christina. I think there's like a pancake breakfast or something afterwards. Yeah, I'll be there for the pancakes. Yeah.
Christina: So it's Sunday, January 22nd. Um, it's, the race starts at 9:00 AM and then it's, you start at like the Rochester Fire Department, so in Rochester, Michigan.
That'll be fun. Yeah. Hopefully it's
Leslie: not frigid cold, but that will be a really fun event.
Christina: Well, that 5k, Iran in November. Under 20 degrees, so I think I can do this one.
Timothy: What do you wear? What do you wear when it's sta called in? You're
Christina: running. So this is what I wore. I'm not like a legit runner or anything, but I wore fleece like tights and then my like running leggings, and then I wore.
Three shirts. So I wore an Under Armor, a long sleeve running shirt, and then a runner's winter jacket that I got. [00:02:00] I mean I was trying to be legit and then I had gloves, but I ended up having to take my gloves off like halfway because you get so sweaty. Well, I mean I layers layer I feel like would be a good idea.
I sweat a lot, so you know, just in case anybody was wondering, I do Okay. Dress and layers for
that
Laura: one. . Yeah.
Christina: Okay.
Leslie: So if you're not a runner, Which I am not. I'll be meeting you at the next event, which is the dinner in the dark event, which is much more my speed. Uh, we're having dinner in the dark on March 10th.
It's a really fun event that we have in Detroit at the, uh, mgm. and uh, basically people come and we kind of talk about leader dog, but also they get to experience a little bit of what it might be like to be blind or visually impaired. So everybody gets a blindfold and they put it on. We talk about how to, you know, organize your plate where the food is.
We have clients share their story and experience. Honestly, it's a really fun night and everybody really does participate, so they get to know a little bit what it's like to have a meal with friends or [00:03:00] family or whoever's at their. Um, under blindfold. So, and we do some other fun things, uh, some cane experience.
There's a wine bowl. There's just a lot of really fun, fun stuff. So I am looking forward to that as well. While you'll be running in January, I'll meet you at pancakes and then we'll go have dinner. Dinner in the dark. ,
Christina: I'm excited for dinner in the dark because last year when I was a part of the team, it was all virtual, so I'm excited that it's in person this year.
Um, and that. I can actually see everybody and experience the event in full, which is
Leslie: cool. Absolutely. We're gonna have a great time. If anybody's interested in learning more about those, you can always check out, uh, leader dog.org to get tickets and to sign up for the frozen paw, 5k. All of that good stuff, of course, is readily in always available.
Um, but today we are super excited because our guest is not only a leader dog team member, but she also volunteers for us as a puppy razor and is raising a very special puppy for us right now. [00:04:00] Yes,
Christina: Laura Fisher is a puppy development coordinator who has been with Leader Dog since 2013. Part of that, she managed a standard bread of racehorse breeding farm.
She has a Bachelor of Science in animal Science from Michigan State University and is raising her 11th future leader dog. Laura,
Timothy: welcome to the podcast. So the first question I got for you is what brought you to
Leader
Laura: Dog? Hi. So what brought me to Leader Dog is that I donated a dog to Leader Dog. He went on to graduate and I got my update magazine in the mail and he was featured in the Update magazine, and I wanted to have that same feeling that I got from.
Opening that magazine and, and feeling so good about what had happened and the impact that he made on the client's life, that I wanted to have that feeling every single day. So I decided to start searching for jobs available at Leader Dog, and it took about five years. And [00:05:00] um, then I found an opening that seemed really perfect.
I applied, and here I.
Christina: That is amazing you, that story of just donating a dog sometimes, you know, that happens. People donate or they volunteer, but they never, you know, look for job openings in five years.
Laura: Yeah, it took a while. I think that. . Um, there's been a lot of changes in the puppy development department, so, to my favor, Yes.
Yes. Um, but what happened was, I just, I, I just felt so good. It was such a great experience for me, and I had such a wonderful time with just dealing with the people at Leader Dog that I, I needed to feel that more often in. I
Leslie: think that's such a great point. And it's so funny how people come to Leader OG and find Leader og.
Everybody's got a unique story. Um, one of my favorites actually too, is a team member who did an internship like in our human resources department and kind of fell in love with the organization, but found out human resources. Not for him and [00:06:00] then still want to be a part of our organization elsewhere. So people, they do, they get that feeling of helping others and being a part of a bigger mission and wanting to join full-time.
So that's incredible. So now how long have you been with
Laura: us since then? So, I've been with Leader Dogs since 2013, so almost 10 years. Be 10 years in April. And um, it feels great. It feels great to go to work every day. So I still have that feeling every.
Christina: That's amazing. So I'm, I'm sure people are wondering what does a puppy counselor
Laura: do?
So I'm a puppy development coordinator. Oh, coordinator. I'm sorry. Coordinator. And I think that when I say that to people, when I say, um, that my, what, what is your job? What do you, what do you do? What do you do? Um, I kind of monopolize that conversation a little bit because. Everybody wants to know what that is.
So what I do for Leader Dog is that I facilitate the puppy razors that we have. I facilitate them filling out [00:07:00] applications, getting with our organization, and then I get them a puppy. And then through that entire year that they raise the puppy, our department supports them and we give them training and extra support that they need to fulfill.
that part of our mission and raising the puppies for people who are blind or visually impaired. So, um, I work mostly with volunteers and so when people say puppy development coordinator, they think I play with puppies all day. , which isn't really true. I spend a lot of time with people, but I do, um, make relationships with them.
Their dogs and we follow them through the training process. And once they get into training at a leader dog, we, we still continue to communicate with the puppy razors and we hope that they come back to us again. So it's something that we want to keep our razors with us, um, and have them raise more puppies and more puppies and more puppies.
what a critical
Leslie: role. I mean, truly be right. We couldn't do what we do without our puppy [00:08:00] razors and to absolutely be the one supporting them on their endeavor. And it can be really stressful at times, especially for a new puppy razor. It can be very intimidating. And I know I certainly wanna talk about the thing that everybody says.
I could never do. I could never do. I could never give the dog back. I just couldn't do it. How do you have those conversations with puppy
Laura: razors? So we kind of start out, and I, I tell everybody about my own experience, so I, I don't think I could give as much information to a puppy razor that I can without doing it myself.
So that's why we continue to raise puppies for Leader Dog. But that. It really starts out as any other project, right? Like you have to think about it. And when you join a soccer team, you go to practice and you practice and you go to games, and you have that season, and this is kind of like our season. And so, You have to kind of think of it like that.
Like I am giving this dog up, but it's not. I'm doing this project, not, not for me, but for someone else. It's that [00:09:00] life of service to other people. And I could never, ever love even Forrest. I, and I love Forest a lot, by the way, . Um, I can never love. Forest as much as someone else needs him for their independence and mobility that they don't have, that I take for granted.
So really it's not about giving the puppy up, it's what you're giving for someone else. And when you have that perspective and you keep that in the back of your mind that this puppy doesn't belong to me, he belongs to Leader Dog for this greater purpose. , it really makes, makes a difference. Of course, your pet, you never wanna give up your pet
Um, so when you think about, that's the only experience people have to draw from, like, oh, I could never give up my dog. But when you think about it, this is really a, a, a project and a, and a service to someone else in a much, uh, a much higher way and a higher level.
Timothy: So Laura, if you're looking for, uh, somebody to be a puppy razor, what are the some of the attributes you need to have to be a puppy
Laura: razor for leader Dog?
That is [00:10:00] a really great question. We really, we are gonna give you the skill level that you need to be a puppy razor. You just really need to want to enhance the life of someone else, and you really just need to have that drive to. Want to do the project and, and be committed to this dog for 12 months of its life.
And once you, once you do that, we give you the skills, Tim. So we're willing to, to train you in the training that you're going to need. If you think, well, I've never owned a dog. We have puppy razors who have never had a dog in their entire life, and they take on this project and they decide that they can commit to us and we commit back to them and, and help them.
Christina: That is amazing. And Laura, I love the way you said, you know, you answered that question of how can you give them up? I feel like we don't hear that type of answer that often. You know, we just kind of hear that question a lot. So I love the way you [00:11:00] said that. Um, and I know you had mentioned Forest, so for those who are listening who don't know who.
Sis, can you tell us a little bit about
Laura: forest? So Forest is being raised in part with a grant from the Gary Sins Foundation. So the Gary Sins Foundation gave Leader Dogs $350,000 to name puppies and have them kind of be sponsored by them. And so, Um, if you don't know about Gary Sins Foundation, the Gary Sins Foundation, I, I get to tell everybody this and, and I think that even the foundation does this sometimes too, where, um, Gary Sin, you know, Lieutenant Dan from Forest Gum
So when I tell people about the Gary Sin Sins Foundation in that forest is. Is part of their mission as well. I get to say the Gary Cindy's Foundation, Lieutenant Dan, and then everybody goes, oh, yes, yes, yes. . So he, the Gary Cindy's Foundation does amazing work with veterans and different things that they do to help and support [00:12:00] veteran families, first responder families and veterans themselves and.
Forest gets to be part of that. He gets to go out in public and, and, and speak to that mission as well. My husband is an Army veteran, so it really just makes sense for us to, to take on a different role.
Christina: Yeah. And you know, at Leader Dog we're so thankful to have them as a sponsor and we've been able to serve more veterans through this sponsorship and it's been amazing to see.
We've talked to a couple of veterans on our podcast as well and um, you know, the service they give is absolutely amazing. And so you have been doing something fun with Forest. Um, so cuz we give updates to the Gary Snee Foundation. On, you know, the puppies they're raising and forest is the first one, um, in the first batch of the seven puppies that they'll get.
But Laura, you and Forest are doing something fun. If you can tell us a little bit about that.
Laura: Sure. Forests and I, and, and [00:13:00] members of my family, so I take my, uh, my family with us as well, but every time we go through a town or we look at towns in our own community, what we do is we go visit a Veteran's memorial that's there and.
Pretty much every town or every city or every little municipality has a Veteran's Memorial and they're sponsored by lots of different groups, lots of different, um, People decide that they want to build one. They're, they're some of our parks, some are just little walls. Some are much more than that. But we go, and of course Forest gets a good walk in, so that's always a good thing, time for me to exercise and train forest in public, but also for us to reflect and remember that they're veterans that are, and these memorialized in, in these veterans Memorial.
really, that's the freedom that we have that, that someone, someone sacrificed for us. This is just a minimal, a minimal thing [00:14:00] that we can do to help and, and, and continue to raise awareness for them. And so we kind of take it as that reflection of, of, of what we're doing and the service that we can do for others.
And, and it's fun. It's, it's really interesting to see. Amazing. Some of them have amazing sculptures or just beautiful, beautiful parks that are landscaped so wonderfully and someone put a lot of thought and effort into that. And so like I said, it really helps us to reflect on that. That's fascinating.
Leslie: That's absolutely wonderful. And I'm sure, like you said, forest benefits just as much as you and your family. And I love that idea of, um, bringing your kids and your husband along so it can be a bit of a family of, uh, and educating and, and that sacrifice that was made by our veterans and to respect and, and give them a moment.
And I think that's wonderful and it's a great, um, relationship. Built with the Gary Sinise Foundation, and I think it's absolutely wonderful. Your personal, um, impact that [00:15:00] you're having on this relationship with Forrest. And Forrest is a, a male yellow lab. Is he a full He's a full
Laura: lab, yes. A full lab. Okay.
Um, we, of, of all the dogs we've raised, I would say that, um, Yellow Labs happened. Male Yellow Labs happened to be my favorite. . Funny that I got Forest because we were deciding on, you know, the puppy department had a lot of, um, we had to think about, okay, we need razors for this project. We need puppies, we need to assign puppies.
That's part of our job and part of what we do. And in the litter. . They wanted one dog that was black and one dog that was yellow, and there was only one male yellow lab . Oh my goodness. Um, of course everybody knows that male yellow labs are, are kind of my favorite . And that's, um, the majority of the dogs we've had have been male yellow labs.
And so when I, I said, you know, of course, I, I immediately said as soon as this opportunity came about, I said, I want to do this. Absolutely [00:16:00] sign me up. I will fill out an application today. I cuz I raised 10 puppies and I thought 10. You're done right. 10. It's a nice round. Yeah. Campus number 10. Let's just go.
Okay, we've done our service to Leader Dog. But then when you read about the the Gary Sice mission, it actually says, We can never do enough, but we can always do a little more. Um, so this is my little more mm-hmm. , but now I'm at 11 and I'm like, should I go for 15? Yeah. Yeah. for sure. Like, like 11. Doesn't seem like a right number either.
Yeah. So likely we'll be back at it. and most of our razors do come back for a second puppy. I actually looked up some statistics. Yeah. And, um, more than in this past year, it's the rate of return razors filling out applications to come back to us is greater than 60%. That's Wow. Incredible. Wow. So in the past couple of years, even through the pandemic, that number was greater than 50 for the most part of the year.
That if you [00:17:00] do it once you're. Be addicted to that service to others. Mm-hmm. . And you're gonna have that feeling that I have every day when I go to work, that you're gonna have that feeling and you're gonna wanna do it again and again and again. That is
Christina: amazing to hear that so many people come back and raise another puppy, and I'm sure they get too used to having a puppy in their home.
So it's, you know, it's not a big change. They're like, oh, I can do it again. I
Laura: can do it again. Once you do it, once you figure out. That you can do it. Yeah. I think that's the first step is filling out that application on our website and just going to that, through that application process and saying, okay, I'm, I'm ready.
I'm, I can commit to this. And once you do it, once you, oh yeah, that's what people do. They go, okay, I'm ready. Even if they do it. When they're a young growing family, like my boys, my hope is that they will grow up, have their own families, and raise a puppy for us. So Laura,
Timothy: how, what was it like because I, I, every pep puppy makes it.
So how do you keep the puppy razor wanting to come back and get in a dog? Because who knows, their dog may not made it [00:18:00] this time, but the next one could. So how do you keep them energized to keep doing.
Laura: Well, one of the things that I try to kind of let puppy razors know all the time is that they're not measured on a level of success of whether their dog graduates.
So they're every dog is important to our mission, whether they become pets. And career change dogs or they become an in another part of a career. So say they go to an alternative career like Ed K nine or the Canine Advocacy Program. So even though they might go onto those, that's still a need that there is.
And even if your dog goes, maybe even goes back to you, you, you can definitely do this project again. And I think that our razors understand that, that. We can't make a dog be a leader dog. Nobody can do that. No puppy razor can say, this is your mission and you are going to be a dog because the dog makes their choice.
So once you realize that the, the choice isn't really, you do the best that [00:19:00] you can as a puppy razor you. You bring us back to Leader Dog. A dog that's open to learning, and that that has the, the skills to learn, the, the guide skills that we're asking, and that's all we really ask of our puppy raisers, that they're well taken care of, that the dog is, like I said, their mind and brain is open to learning that they understand positive reinforcement training.
And if you've done that, you've done a, a, a great job. And that's a su level of success. And so that's pretty much how we, we relay that to our puppy razors that you're not a failure if your dog doesn't go on to become a leader dog that has nothing to do with your level of failure. Um, and that we, that every dog you raise for us is a success because if we don't have.
That number of dogs, we can't serve a certain number of clients, and that's really the important part. So we know, right? We know that there are gonna, some that don't make it. I've raised dogs that, that have been, uh, career change. They've gone on to be pets or they've gone on to [00:20:00] alternative service careers.
And it, it's sad. I'm, uh, because I, I focused on the mission of Leader Dog and that's really why I raised my puppy. But that doesn't. , they were in any way a failure. They became someone's pet or someone advocates for Leader Dog by saying, I don't know how many people I meet in public that will say to me, I have a career change dog.
Mm-hmm. . Yes. That's so great. Mm-hmm. . And so they can contribute. They just contribute to our mission in a different way. It's, it's not a failure.
Christina: Yes. And I think that's amazing, um, to point out career change, um, because some of 'em do actually go on to different careers as. Therapy type dogs or, um, I, that sort of thing, or their, their career is to be a pet.
That's absolutely, that's what they were meant to be, and I think that's amazing to say. See, and Laura, you have a family, so. I know some people probably are thinking, well, I, you know, my kids are in all these activities, or I work a full-time job and then I have to run, you know, my daughter to ballet, my son to, [00:21:00] you know, soccer or whatever it may be.
Um, kind of what would you say to someone who, you know, Is thinking about doing this, but thanks. Oh man, I have so much going on. You do this with the family. So
Laura: yeah, so I have three teenagers and, um, we, basically, how I look at it is that we incorporate the dog and the puppy into our lifestyle. So I think that from, from my own perspective, that.
I go to swim meets all the time. , and the puppy just comes with, um, he goes with me to pick them up from school. He goes with me, um, to things like a podcast for work. Yes, . He joins me in things that I'm normally doing and I incorporate him and I know that where I'm going in, a lot of the places that I go and the activities that I participate in are.
Welcoming of him and almost [00:22:00] expect now, um, because I've been doing this for a while, that my school embraces Forest and it embraces the mission of Leader Dogs. So they're always welcomed, he's always welcomed there at parent-teacher conferences or whatever. If it's a good training opportunity, I will bring him.
If it's not a good training opportunity, let's say it's gonna be the state. Coming up in March and, and, um, I probably won't take him because I'm going to wanna focus on what's going on and be present for my son at that time. But he can stay home and that's a good opportunity for him to do that. So they don't have to go everywhere.
Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . But if you, and just kind of incorporate them and you're like, okay, okay, where can I take him? Where am I going? I'm going to work. Okay. Is it okay with my employer that I bring the dog? Obviously. Leader dog. He comes with me to Leader Dog hangs out in my office when I'm in the office, but he also goes different places with me work-wise as well.
He's a wonderful traveler. That's a great skill for a future [00:23:00] leader dog to have, is that he knows how to travel in the car. He knows how to go somewhere else with me. And, um, I just incorporate that into our lifestyle. My kids are big helpers now that they're older. When we started raising, my youngest was five, so, um, he.
Help . Yeah, . Now though, he can take the dogs out or he can walk the dog or he can do things that are, um, you know, a little bit higher level. They all know how to care and, and my husband has embraced it, which is the, the funnest part about it for me is that my husband who is not into any of this, he didn't even really, yes, he liked dogs.
You know, not on a training level. And I'll hear him, like, talk to someone else about Leader Dog or talk about, you know, say, now Laura, was that very positive what you're saying about him ? Because that's not what we do. We, we have a different mindset. And so he, and he helps and supports the project a hundred percent.
He's behind me in doing this and [00:24:00] so are the kids. And we couldn't do it if we weren't a. You know that have that family support because that's really important. Your whole family has to be on board. You can, uh, um, a hundred percent do it. If you're a college student, you can raise a puppy. If you are retired, you can raise a puppy.
If you are single, you can raise a puppy. If you're married, you can raise a puppy. All of those different people come together as a group and, and support and help you and build you up. So it's like a big family within. , our own little family.
Christina: Yes. And um, I know we, there's a private Facebook page for them that they can chat with each other and share pictures.
I. , I'm always looking at that page for cute pictures or seeing their training pictures. It's really cool. So there is so much support and I know if someone's, you know, wanting to do this, but they're nervous on, can I ask my work? Can I ask, how do I ask these places to bring in the dog? Is there, you know, do you walk them through how to
Laura: do that?
Absolutely. In [00:25:00] every single. Puppy Razor is assigned to a puppy razor group that has what we call a volunteer puppy counselor. And that volunteer puppy counselor is a volunteer that's assigned to you, that gives you that help and support of your group. So you're assigned to a group based on your geographical.
Area. So in the metro Detroit area, obviously we have lots of groups, but we have groups as far away, um, as Tennessee and Chicago. There's groups, so you don't have to necessarily live around here to raise a puppy. You can live anywhere in the United States and do this project, but that puppy counselor is kind of your person.
They're your go-to. They're experience, they know what they're doing, they know how to help and support you, but not only the puppy counselor, the, we've got, like you said, the Facebook page. We have a puppy razor manual. Videos. We have all kinds of other things that we have, um, and. We're ready to help and support you in that way.
But [00:26:00] additionally, um, from kind of my perspective as well is that you have a puppy development coordinator assigned to you, also. So I have plenty of, um, puppy razors that come and see me and, um, they know exactly and that they can call me at any time and I'm gonna help them walk them through those problem.
So you're part of a
Leslie: team too. Like you are not the only, uh, puppy coordinator at Leader Dog. So you have a team and you also help, um, the prison programs. Right. Do you wanna tell us a little bit about that? Oh, wow. Yes, I do.
Laura: I know we have. There's so much we could really talk about here. There's so much. Yes.
Um, being a puppy development coordinator, I didn't realize until people ask you about it, how, how. Involved there is mm-hmm. . But yes, I have a team of people. There are four puppy development coordinators, plus an admin and of course our, someone who supervises our department. So we have a team of people and yes, we raise dogs.
Leader Dog has about right now, oh gosh, I couldn't, about 80 puppies [00:27:00] being raised just a little bit more than that. Anywhere between 80 and a. Puppies being raised in correctional facilities and really that part of puppy raising and I, I didn't, I didn't mention it when I said you can also be an inmate and raise puppies.
Yeah. Um, because we have an inmate raising program and those, those guys do such an amazing job and it's an amazing. part of their experience that they can do this and give back to someone. Again, it's helping someone. It's serving someone else when you may have done something to harm someone. Mm-hmm. . And so there is a, uh, I believe it is, they are 30% less likely to, um, reoffend once they're released from.
Uh, from jail. And so when you think about it, these, these inmates and in a lot of our correctional facilities are going to be released at some point. Mm-hmm. , they're going to be your friend. They're going to be your neighbor, they're going to be someone who's living in your community, and why not give them that opportunity to [00:28:00] enhance their life and give them a life skill for when they are released?
and so I go to correctional facilities. I visit three different ones. My, my, um, team members also visit correctional facilities. I visit three different correctional facilities on a monthly basis and teach a class, uh, to the inmates on, on puppy raising and how, how, what skills they need to build. And they're amazing.
They, they have the time and, and that gift of, of being able to handle the dogs and they do a great. And the dogs are
Leslie: quite successful coming out of those programs, there's a lot of consistency. Yeah. Within that
Laura: environment, it's almost like a small, um, people say, well, how do they get out in public if, if they're incarcerated?
It's kind of like a little small city. Yeah. I mean, there's lots of things going on. There's lots of, of, um, there's not a lot of of. Traffic per se. But there are things like, like gators that would go around or, um, their, their mess hall, they're kind of their mm-hmm. , their eating area as kind of like a restaurant [00:29:00] and, you know, so they do get those experiences and, um,
The dogs definitely do, definitely do well. And, and those guys miss 'em just as much as we do. They, it's hard for them to give them up to Yeah. . Um, but again, they're, they're thinking about serving others.
Leslie: Yeah. And that unconditional love that they're giving and getting in return Absolutely. Um, goes a long way.
I think that program is absolutely incredible and I always love learning about it. Um, but I wanna thank you, Laura, for taking the time today to speak with us and share all of your knowledge and experience. We really appreciate. And thank you to our listeners for listening to the Taking the Lead podcast.
I'm Leslie Hoskins. I hope you enjoyed today's episode, and please join us next week as we continue to dive into the world of blindness.
Christina: Yes. And if you'd like to learn more about Applied Wear Free Services at Leader Dog. Or becoming a puppy razor. You can head to leader dog.org or call us at (888) 777-5332.
And don't forget, you can reach us at taking the [00:30:00] lead@leaderdog.org with any questions or ideas. If you like today's podcast, make sure to hit subscribe and check us out wherever Podcast Stream. This season of the Taking the Lead podcast is brought to you by a longtime supporter of Leader Dog, the Mary p Delian Halleran found.
Leslie: As you may know, generous donors like this one make it possible to achieve our mission.
Christina: The Mary p Dolche Halleran Foundation supports the study of mathematics and mathematics education. For more
Leslie: information about our generous sponsor, visit their website at www.docihalleranfoundation.org.