Christina: [00:00:00] Welcome to the taking the lead podcast, where we empower people to be unstoppable. I'm Christina Heppner with my cohost, Leslie Hoskins and Timothy Kuo. Leslie, you're making some big changes in your life. I do wanna fill everybody in on that.
Leslie: Oh my goodness. Well, we have decided it is time to get a new house.
yes, she's not leaving. not leaving. There's no babies on the way. There's nothing like that. We've just outgrown our house and we absolutely love our house, but both of us are working a lot from home now. So we need a little bit more office space. Our kids are getting bigger. Um, so they need some more room to run and play and do activities.
If you will. It's a big decision. It is, it is, we've been in our house for about seven years. Um, and it's a three bedroom, one bath. So now that all people are potty trained in my household, we do need another bathroom. see. I used
Christina: to move every one to two [00:01:00] years, but it was just me and my dog. So it was super easy, but I've lived in the place I'm in now for the longest two years, you guys, two years.
Woo. For the longest I've been in one place. I couldn't even imagine packing up and moving. And you said seven years. All this stuff you're gonna have to go through. I wish you the best of luck.
Leslie: I know we moved a lot around too, like college. Yeah. You bounced around different apartments and things like that.
And then we've kind of settled here. Um, and we started to go through stuff this weekend, cuz we're trying to clean and get ready for, you know, the realtor to take pictures and all these different things we were organizing. And the funniest part is we're asking the kids, you know, to go through some books, like, can you get rid of 10 books, you know, to give to another family?
Or can you go through and get rid of some. Toys. And it is like life changing decisions that these kids are making. It's so funny. I bet. Imagine
Timothy: having my home I've been in my home for 21 years. I was just gonna ask
Leslie: you all the stuff I've collected. Oh my gosh. So, so is that your forever home? Timothy? [00:02:00] Is that where you guys are staying?
Uh, yeah.
Timothy: Yeah. We're staying right where we is.
Christina: Yes. Right where we is. Yeah. I will never forget. I think it was my grandma who moved out, like she used to live in this. Big farmhouse had so much stuff. Oh my gosh. I remember going, I was probably at like 11 at the time, I think, and going and helping do everything.
And I was like, oh, I don't ever wanna do this.
Leslie: and you just like acquire things and you'd like, it finds a spot and then it just. Stays there. Like why would you ever
Christina: move it? Okay. I do have a quick, funny story based on moving. So there was a box I had never opened. I just moved it from place to place to place.
Well, I had roommates when I lived, when I was a TV news reporter and. They would ha I don't know why this was a thing, but we'd go to Goodwill and get creepy dolls and like hide them in each other's stuff. well, thi this past year I just opened that box. Cause I was like, oh, what's in this. I should [00:03:00] go through it.
Cleaning out creepy doll, right on top. I was like, oh my God, how this has been there for years. I, so I texted a picture of it to them. I was like, you guys, I just opened this box after. 34 years. That's so funny. Yeah. So hopefully you don't find any creepy dolls in your house. I mean,
Leslie: hopefully not. I don't think there will be any surprises, but you never know.
Um, but that reminds me of a funny story. My friend, um, in college, when we'd go back to our parents' house, uh, and spend the summers and whatnot. She would bring east eggs and hide them all over my parents' house. Like to this day, my mom, every now and then will just like, send me a picture of an east Easter, like inside VAs and cupboards and cups in the back and like, oh God.
So funny. I'm gonna start doing that to people. Yeah.
Christina: It was it's great. It was so funny. I literally died, but it was the creepiest doll that I literally, I'm sorry to the doll, but I put it in the dumpster. I was like,
Leslie: that seems like bad karma probably, but I
Christina: was afraid [00:04:00] it was gonna like haunt my house, you know?
Cause all I touching about was movies. I do, I, I love scaring movies and I literally was
Leslie: like, Chucky. See, I don't watch scream movies. Exactly.
Christina: I was like, I'm not about to have that happen. It's been locked in this box and now it's out of the box.
Leslie: I think that's great. Timothy. I think you should start hiding things at people's houses.
When you and glacier go places, you can blame it on glacier.
Timothy: Yeah, I can. Yes. There's a lot of stuff I can blame on glacier.
Leslie: that's convenient. Well, I'll think of
Christina: some pranks and we'll we'll we'll circle back on this. Okay.
Leslie: all right. Well, we are really excited. Uh, today's gonna be super fun. Our guest is a newer member of the leader dog team, and she really helps run the day to day operations of all of our wonderful volunteers.
Yes, Melissa Pletcher
Christina: started with leader dog at the end of January as our manager of volunteer engagement. Prior to coming to leader dog, she has managed volunteer programs at the museum of science and industry, the Cranbrook Institute of science, [00:05:00] the Ann Arbor, hands on museum, the Detroit science center, the Detroit zoo, and most recently the Jewish family services of Metro Detroit.
Timothy: Hello, Melissa. Welcome to the podcast and wow, you have run a lot of volunteer programs. What brought you to leader?
Melissa: Hi, Timothy. Thanks for having me. I have a real passion for animals, nature and serving people. So two of my favorite jobs in the past were at the Detroit zoo, uh, where I worked with amazing group of animal care, uh, givers and also volunteers and learned a lot about the animal residents.
And then also I worked at Jewish family service in Metro Detroit, where I saw firsthand how. Impactful volunteers were on our clients. So when the job came up at leader dog, I thought, wow, this is great. This combines my two passions together. And it, it doesn't hurt that there are puppies and I . [00:06:00] Yes, right.
Every day that that doesn't hurt at all. So, and, and the mission is really something that I can get behind.
Leslie: That's awesome. So you worked at the Detroit zoo. I have to ask, were you able to like, go see any animals behind the scenes or anything like that? No.
Melissa: Well, yes, really? Um, yes. In fact, part of what they do, um, once a year we have this sort of, um, activity where staff, people can sign up to job, shadow the, uh, animal care staff.
And so I worked there a long time, 10 years, so I got to do it at least 10 times. and it's really cool. Ooh, that is so much fun is really cool. Um, you see you, you see the, you know, behaviors and things, but you see the interaction between the care staff and the animals too. They know them, the animals know them, they respond to them.
Um, you know, some of the times I got to feed them mostly. I got to clean up after 'em you get to feed them too. So, yeah, that was
Leslie: cool. What would you say was your [00:07:00] favorite animal?
Melissa: Oh, nobody's gonna know what this is, but I like the Gracos. So Gracos are, um, Lama like animals and they're they're herd species.
They all stick together. But, um, when I, the first day on the job, when I, I got into work, um, my office building was located next to the GCO habitat. And so when I came in, I watched the, this GCO, the related. GCO and Lamas are related to camels. You know how camels are said that they, you know, there can be kind of nasty mm-hmm and they, they chew their food up and make cut, and then they spit that out.
so I walk up and I see a GCO. Who is not having a very good time with another GCO and is spitting his CU like rapid fire machine at the other GCO. And I thought, oh, this place is too cool for[00:08:00]
Christina: that's how Leslie and I are when we're in the same office. I'm kidding.
Leslie: we're like a pack of going off.
Christina: Okay, well, Melissa, that sounds like such an amazing opportunity, but I have to ask, how are you enjoying leader dog so far? I know you came in and we needed vol you know, we're always needing volunteers. So what has it been like so far?
Melissa: It's been great. I, I, I love it. Um, everybody is so kind and so supportive and really, you know, um, helpful to me and you it's a dog friendly office.
So the first day I met everybody's dogs um, and, and, and being, I'm not, not a dog person. I just never had dogs. I was very little when we had a dog, but I've had cats all my life. So I'm learning a lot. about dogs and dog behavior. um, you know, it, it's just, it's a great place. There's so many interesting things going on and learning opportunities.
Um, my [00:09:00] boss is outstanding and my coworker Ann and I work well together, so I couldn't have asked for a better place.
Timothy: So what do volunteers mean to the mission of leader dog?
Melissa: Well, it means that we can do more. Um, we can raise more money, we can assist more clients. Uh, we can care for more dogs. So, um, you know, it really expands our capacity to serve.
So, and volunteers just aren't helping with the specific tasks. They're also our ambassadors out there. So they are in educating the public on what we do and, and how we do it. Um, and oftentimes there are. Most, uh, ardent supporters and donors as well. They also help recruit volunteers. There is nothing like having a person who does a volunteer job say to their friend, oh, you know, I do this.
And that friend then becomes interested in that volunteer opportunity is the number one way to recruit volunteers is word of mouth. Yeah.
Christina: And [00:10:00] Melissa, when I came to later dog, I did not know how many volunteers we had. Were you surprised by that when you joined the organization a little
Melissa: bit because, um, you know, I really didn't realize that we had, uh, 350 about on campus, but then another 500 plus of puppy razors and breeding host, uh, families out there that just blew me
Leslie: away.
Isn't that crazy. Do you mind telling us, like, what are some of the roles that people do on campus as volunteers?
Melissa: Sure. So on campus, uh, for example, we have client drivers. Uh, what they do is they pick up clients at the airport or the train station or bus station, and they greet them right at the gate and then, um, help, um, you know, get the luggage and navigate to the car and then they bring them back to leader, dog.
And then on this. Return route, they do the same thing. So that's, that's one working with clients. We also have a lot of volunteers who work in the canine center. Um, for example, [00:11:00] some help with reception in the lobby, getting people to where they need to go. Others are doing direct dog care. So, um, some are playing with puppies, uh, and others are helping in the vet clinic.
So they really are in every facet of our operations. So
Timothy: if somebody's listening to this podcast and they decide, Hey, that sounds great. How do they become a volunteer?
Melissa: Well, the best way, first of all, they need to be 18. uh, with, with some exceptions, some of our special events, we accept students who are 16, but you have to be 18.
And then the best way released to go on our website and, uh, leader, dog.org, and look at the volunteer page. Uh, we list kind of like you would. For a job, a regular pay job, we list our volunteer opportunities. And so what is listed there is what we currently are recruiting for. It'll give you all the particulars about what we're looking for and what qualifications, what the [00:12:00] time commitment is like.
Um, and, and then you put in an application directly online.
Leslie: You know, one thing I don't think people realize about, um, volunteers at an organization such as leader, dog and others, I'm sure is that it is a real commitment. It's not just, oh, like you're bored on a Saturday, you know, pop in and play with puppies.
We, we really ask a commitment from our volunteers and our volunteers are so. Dedicated. It is insane. How many people, like you just said 350 on campus, plus 500 or so puppy raisers who all support the leader, dog mission and dedicate their time and their energy. And they come and they do all these different tasks.
It's incredible.
Christina: Yeah. And you know, we've talked to. Both breeding hosts and puppy razors in the past. And that commitment as well as, you know, they, both of them bring puppies in their homes, whether it's a breeding host or a puppy, razor has a puppy for a year and they have to give that puppy up for a greater mission.
And so I think that's just [00:13:00] a huge commitment in itself, not just the time, but the emotional aspect of giving up this, these animals you've grown attached.
Melissa: Absolutely. You know, I hear that a lot, um, from people like, oh, I could never be a puppy racer because I have to give up the puppy at the end. But you know, my counter to that is that you're doing this wonderful thing.
You have all this, you know, great. Time with this puppy. And many times, many, many times the puppy raisers keep in contact with the clients once the dogs are assigned or issued to a client. So there is a continuum there. I know when they're in training, for example, and the dogs are in training, they get updates every few weeks about how the dog is doing.
So you don't really lose complete. Contact or complete knowledge of, of what's going on with the dog, which I think is, is really comforting.
Timothy: My experiences with the, uh, the volunteers is when we [00:14:00] first get there for ONM or for a getting a guide dog, we walk in there on the Sunday and there could be. Back then was like 20 of us, 20 clients.
And so there's like three or four volunteers there to show us around the campus to get us acclimated to where we were. And then, uh, four or five nights later, we had bingo night and that was great because they were there to help us to play. Bingo. Hey, I won for the first time in my life. yes. Love that.
That was fantastic. So, I mean, I wanna thank all the volunteers because you know what you made us feel welcome and you felt like you really cared about us and you gave your time to do this out of your day. And I really wanna thank the volunteers doing this.
Christina: Yes. And Timothy, like you just said, many times our clients, the volunteer is the first person, our clients meet.
They pick 'em up at their airport and that sort of stuff. So they're making an impact from the minute a client gets on campus.
Timothy: We're we're nervous and everything, and they just calm you down. I [00:15:00] mean, they just show you around and they, they, they talk to you real nice and it's just nice. It breaks the
Leslie: eyes.
Absolutely. And it helps the instructors and the trainers so much. So it used to be back in the day, if you will. Um, and this is before my time too. So really back in the day, But our instructors used to have to go to the airport on the weekends and pick up clients and bring 'em back. And then they had no kind of personal life, right?
Like they were so dedicated and still are to the mission and working with clients. But by having these wonderful volunteers, it gives our trainers a time to break or prep or get ready, um, or have a day with their family during class and things like that. So we are forever grateful to all of our volunteers.
One of the roles that I find really interesting about volunteers at leader, dog, which. For the record, volunteers are in every aspect, every department, every area of leader, dog, we could not do what we do without them. But one of the things I find interesting is they actually work in our accessible materials center.
Which we call our AMC. And so they help braille [00:16:00] documents and they help print out large print documents and they do recordings and audio and all sorts of different things to make our materials as accessible as possible. Um, so shout out to the AMC, uh, volunteers and to all volunteers, honestly, but I just think that is so neat that honestly volunteers will come and we can, you know, learn a specialized task if they don't already have that knowledge and really make an impact.
Christina: And that machine I will say is loud but ,
Leslie: it is right by our
Christina: office. Yeah. That's the only reason, but it's so cool because I, I actually do like to go like pop in there when they're doing it, just to see how it, because I've never done it, like just to see how it works. So, I mean, our volunteers are also getting skills that most of us who are paid employees don't even have.
So it's really awesome.
Leslie: Yes, absolutely. So Melissa, you've been at leader dog now for a few months. What has been, uh, I guess like the most impactful thing so far of joining the leader dog [00:17:00] mission?
Melissa: Well, I guess for me personally, when I did the blindfold walk. Um, the sense of giving up, you know, that control , you know, and placing that, uh, control with someone else, uh, or another being
Um, that, that was, that was really impactful for me. Um, and it was a, it was a short experience, but it really, it. Made a difference for me, um, that, and just seeing the, the dedication of the, both the dog trainers and the instructors and how hard they work and how dedicated they are, uh, is amazing. I, I saw a similar thing in, at, in the zoo world.
You know, animal care staff are extremely dedicated. They give up their lives for their animals. And I, I sense that same sort of dedication. Which is amazing to me. I I'm happy [00:18:00] and, um, grateful to be part of an organization that has people like that working
Christina: for him. Yeah. And some of our volunteers are the ones that conduct those at dog walks they're Leslie's
Leslie: volunteers, correct?
Yeah. I was just gonna say, isn't that funny that actually our volunteers are the ones that helped you have that most impactful experience. Right. But we have blindfold walk volunteers. So people who we've actually, you know, kind of upskilled or taught. How to provide these experiences for people, uh, to get an idea and, and by idea, I mean, a very small glimpse into what it's like to work with a guide dog.
And so we have what we call canine ambassadors who are kind of like our PR dogs and do these, uh, different events and, and things like that. And so all new team members get to experience what it's like to walk with a guide dog. So we actually have volunteers who come in and assist with these and the team member goes under blindfold and the volunteer kind of assists, uh, our canine ambassadors with walking.
And so that clients get an, or I'm sorry, team members get an idea. We also do this for [00:19:00] different events and things like that. Yeah. We
Christina: just did it at bark and brew. Absolutely. Not too long ago, a few months ago, but I mean, so many volunteer opportunities, Melissa, you've worked in so many places. What would you say makes our volunteer opportunities unique to other places that you've been
Melissa: well, I I've never had a volunteer drive a dog to a prison before that that's unique.
Yeah, no really there's no, uh, there's no busy work. Um, kind of volunteer roles. Every role that we have is really vital to the success of the organization. Um, and the level of training and trust we place in our volunteers is like nothing else I've seen before. Um, it's, it's just amazing. Uh, and the, the amount of dedication as you mentioned of those volunteers, um, Is really, really something I've, I've seen, um, [00:20:00] some records.
I haven't met all the volunteers yet, but I've seen some records of volunteers, you know, having raised 40 puppies. Um, having been with the organization for a very, very, very long time. And that really shows, you know, how motivated they are, how dedicated they are, and really kind of is a kudos to us for having an organization.
They wanna be part of, to give so much of their time to.
Christina: Yes. And every volunteer I've gotten to meet in my short time, I I'm almost coming up on my year, actually. It's crazy. Um, and every volunteer I've met has been so amazing. They've taught me something as well. So our volunteers are just the friendliest people.
They're always happy to be there. They're not like, oh, I'm volunteering today. They're excited to be there. Sharing our mission, but I did wanna circle back on the driver who drives puppies to prison. It is an initiative we partner with different prisons and they [00:21:00] actually raised one of our puppies for us.
So some of our puppies are raised in the correctional facility. So we are not taking our puppies to jail. If that's, we
Leslie: don't just drop 'em off. Wow, man. It's a little less exciting that way. Yeah. You know, . One thing we should also mention is that during the pandemic, when we were closed, how supported our volunteers remained.
So there were a couple, almost two years where things were shut down and volunteers weren't able to come to campus. And first of all, our team stepped up incredibly because volunteers feel such a huge, huge, huge role. So that was really hard on our team members to lose their volunteers during that time.
But. The support that our volunteers continued to have for us was incredible. And honestly, the majority of them picked up right where they left off when they came back. And so we wanna thank them for that, um, for being patient with us, for being understanding and recognizing that, you know, we were doing the best that we could.
And we just are so thankful, gay,
Melissa: amen to that.
Christina: If someone is [00:22:00] wanting to volunteer, I know we already said go to our website and that sort of stuff, but what is like something. That's a unique opportunity that they could do besides puppy raising and breeding. I feel like people hear about that a lot. What is something that maybe people don't know that they can.
Melissa: Okay. So currently for example, um, we have, um, marketing, assistant, um, position that we're looking for. Someone to help our, uh, graphic designer do design and layout of newsletters. So this is a, you know, someone who's creative and has some computer skills might be interested in that. Um, we are also looking for, as you said, AMC before Leslie, um, we are looking for someone to help, uh, produce some of those materials in the accessible, um, materials department.
This is really unique. We are looking for Spanish interpreters. Oh. Um, and we're looking locally and internationally. For someone who, uh, would be willing to spend, [00:23:00] um, a bit of time with us 21 days, um, interpreting for our clients who are coming from, uh, south and, and central America. And this is really an opportunity to, um, give in a big way.
And also perhaps if you're not local, you know, to, to see some of. Local sites. So, uh, those are some of the things that we're, we're looking for also breeding, um, litter, assistant volunteers. They help with the breeding dogs who are on campus and also with the litters that are on campus. So those are just some of the things right now that we're looking for.
And every, every month. Something else really gets posted. So I, I recommend that people continue to look at the, the website, if they wanna talk to, to me or my colleague, Anne, about, you know, something they're specifically interested in, but they don't see it on the website. They're always welcome to email or call us our numbers are on the website.
Leslie: Wonderful. And I love that you brought up [00:24:00] the, the interpreter. I think that is such a unique role and. For sure, very giving people will fly here to spend 21 days with our clients and interpret for our instructors, um, while getting a guide dog. And it is incredible to watch to be a part of our, um, clients who are Spanish speaking are so thankful.
Our guide dog mobility instructors are incredibly thankful. And that's not a lot of downtime that's meals, that's out training that's. I mean, talk about the dedication and we've had volunteers who have done that multiple times have come back for multiple classes to do that and dedicate all of that time.
So just incredible. That's just one example. Um, thank you, Melissa, for providing all of those. Thank you for joining us today and sharing all that there is to know about volunteers at leader. Again, we just wanna thank everybody who dedicates their time or who donates to the mission of leader dog. We could not do it without everyone.
So thank you also to our listeners for listening to the, taking the lead podcast. I'm [00:25:00] Leslie Haskins with host Timothy CUO and Christina Hepner. We hope you enjoyed learning about Melissa and how volunteers support our mission. Please join us next week as we continue to dive into the world of blindness.
Yes. And
Christina: we have to say thank you one more time to our volunteers. And if you'd like to learn more about applying or volunteering to leader at leader dog, you can head to leader, dog.org or call us at AA eight. 7 7 7 5 3 3 2. And don't forget, you can reach us at taking the lead at leader, dog.org with any questions or ideas.
And if you like today's podcast, make sure to hit subscribe and check us out wherever podcast street.