Lincoln Elementary School therapy dog to begin work May 22

PETOSKEY — On Henry’s fourth birthday, he put on his best outfit — a vest and leash — and hopped into the car ready for his first day of school.

Henry, a labradoodle, got his first introduction to the students attending Lincoln Elementary School last week, celebrating a birthday and his completed therapy dog training, meaning he can come work at the school.

Henry will begin work at Lincoln Elementary after Clare Frey, a Lincoln alumna and human biology freshman at Michigan State University, worked for four years to get an elementary school therapy dog pilot program approved in the district.

More: New therapy dog could be coming to Petoskey schools

Frey said this is something she had been interested in from a young age, but really decided it was something she would like to help out with after seeing the positive effects Poppy, the therapy dog at Petoskey High School, had on students.

At the January school board meeting, the board heard a presentation from Frey’s mom and fourth grade teacher at Lincoln, Kristen Frey, and Petoskey High School counselor Katie Frentz.

“Her presence during COVID when students were coming back into the building and had anxiety, it’s hard to describe and it’s hard to quantify the impact that she has, but the number of times you hear a student say, ‘This is the best part of my day,’ — it’s daily, it’s often,” Frentz said during the January meeting while discussing Poppy’s impact on the school.

Henry just rounded out his fourth month of training. The Frey family originally got Henry with the goal of making him a therapy dog, but due to issues with the administration in the district, there was never a chance for the board to approve the motion.

After facing issues, Frey said she was encouraged by workers from Charlotte’s Litter to write a grant to make Henry’s training possible. The program was started by the Charlotte Helen Bacon Foundation after the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, where 6-year-old Charlotte Helen Bacon was killed. Frey was encouraged by Charlotte's mom herself as well during the grant-writing process.

Frey said she wanted to see the program help support the foundation and do something good in honor of the program's namesake. The foundation gave a $2,000 grant for Henry's training, and the rest of the funding was rounded out by the Petoskey-Harbor Springs Area Community Foundation.

He trained at Maple Lane Kennels in Ortonville, Michigan, the same facility that helped train the therapy dogs in the Brighton school districts. Brighton helped answer questions about how to make having multiple dogs a sustainable option in the schools.

During his four months of training, Henry had to be sent downstate. In that time, and just a few short weeks after the Petoskey school board provided their support for the pilot program, a gunman shot and killed three students, and injured five, at Michigan State University.

Providing support to the students at the university Frey now attends was his first assignment.

“Henry's first assignment was at the MSU shooting,” Frey said. “The first day we were back at classes his trainers brought him, and I think Charlotte would have been really proud of him. It was just kind of like a full circle moment there.”

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Frey said that this isn’t something she ever thought would happen to her community.

“I always pictured Henry going other places to comfort people, and just seeing him with my peers and my friends and just knowing that I've been working on this for around four years and it just all happened at the same time was definitely surreal,”  she said.

Frey said that while preparing Henry to be certified wasn't easy, like sending him downstate for training, she knows it will be worth it.

“Seeing the joy on students' faces (last) Friday when they met Henry really made it all worth it,” she said. “I am really proud of him and know this is just the start of the impact he will have.”

— Contact Karly Graham at kgraham@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KarlyGrahamJRN.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Lincoln Elementary School therapy dog to begin work May 22