"National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, or '911 Appreciation Week' as we call it, is one of our favorite weeks for the LCC K-9 Comfort Dog Ministry at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fort Collins, Colorado," says Bonnie Fear, Comfort Dog Ministry Leader and handler for LCC K-9 Comfort Dogs Devorah and Zacchaeus (Redeemer - Fort Collins, Colorado). Early in their ministry, Redeemer's team came up with an idea on how to connect with these special people. One of the things they have found is how difficult it is sometimes to describe the LCC K-9 Comfort Dog Ministry over the phone to someone unfamiliar with it because it is a unique ministry of presence. So, the team called local police departments and asked if they could drop off some items to show their love and support for their 911 dispatchers. "Oh, and we let them know that we have two Golden Retrievers who would also like to show their thanks. That got us in the door immediately," says Bonnie. Now, Devorah and Zacchaeus visit once a month, and local police departments and 911 dispatch are their regular visits. "We are branching out and adding two more police departments on our calendar by the end of May," adds Bonnie. To present day the Redeemer team calls their 911 “friends” at three of their local police departments and schedules three different “shift” times during the second week in April to spend time with all dispatchers and bring them a small token of their love and appreciation for what they do. "They told us, 'Gifts aren’t necessary; just bring Devorah and Zacchaeus.' That works for us!” says Bonnie. This year, they dropped off appreciation gifts without the dogs to one of their local 911 agencies, which are currently working on getting us approved to bring Devorah and Zacchaeus on regular monthly visits. "I think they found out we were serious about how thankful we are for them by not bringing the dogs! They said it won’t be long before we get them in the door," says Bonnie. As the years have passed, the Redeemer team developed trust and personal human relationships with this special group of people. They are “on call” to bring Devorah and Zacchaeus Comfort Dogs after critical incident situations to bring calmness and quiet to their hearts and minds. "We have a bond and understanding of each other and our passion for serving people. This is a very important part of what we do to bring comfort to first responders," says Bonnie. Comments are closed.
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