Kym

Kymberlee and Sarah from Flock with Anne (centre) and Maggie

Kym – “Sarah saw your post on FB and sent me a message and I said ok’ let’s make this happen’. We have 4 rescue dogs, we love dogs and we’re clucky as hell so anything to do with children and dogs, make it happen now. We did some googling and read into Story Dogs and I thought, this is so beautiful. I come from a youth work background and I thought, this is so lovely and so generous of people to spend their time, lots of energy and training a dog to be able to do this. So it was let’s get on board and we feel Flock is a great platform to be able to help people like that. The shop has access to lots of people.”

Anne – “I was blown over because Denise (HOL) texted me and said Anne you already have a sponsor. I felt really uncomfortable about approaching people because I felt it’s not for me but it still doesn’t feel right so when that happened it was so wonderful. I met the girls and saw that they were such animal lovers. I think Maggie will be great. She’s such a gentle dog and loves the attention. We are now booked in with South Lismore Public School and we went to assembly. All the kids mobbed her like she was a rock star. They asked me if she could read and what books she liked to read. I said, no but she’s a very good listener and wants to hear you read. It’s this wonderful, automatic engagement between children and a dog. It just happens. Often kids aren’t read to at home because parents are busy or for whatever reason but Maggie’s a good listener. When a child laughs she’ll wag her tail. They think she really is listening and engaging. I’m just waiting on the parents permission notes and we’ll be starting every Wednesday, South Lismore Public School from 9 – 11am.”

Sarah – “It’s such a good thing and so important, especially with all the technology at the moment that we get kids to read books.”

Kym – “It’s connecting in a way that’s not from an app. This is human contact, animal contact in an organic, natural way.”