{"id":6620,"date":"2024-02-16T10:31:33","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T15:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=6620"},"modified":"2024-02-16T10:31:35","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T15:31:35","slug":"therapy-dogs-visit-p-cep-before-semester-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=6620","title":{"rendered":"Therapy dogs visit P-CEP before semester finals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>1st Place, Human Interest Feature <\/strong><br>2022-23, Division 1, News Writing<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By Samantha Knight<br>The Perspective<br>Plymouth-Canton Educational Park<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Walking into a classroom the day before final exams can fuel stress and anxiety for any high school student. However, walking into a room full of all different breeds of support dogs replace these feelings with comfort and ease.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In anticipation of semester finals, the Plymouth-Canton Education Park (P-CEP) held \u201cTherapy Dog Day\u201d on January 24, 2023. This event took place at the three high school buildings during all lunches, giving the student population an opportunity to \u201cmelt stress away\u201d before a long few days of exams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAnother district employee associated me with these therapy dog groups,\u201d said Erin Demarest, a guidance counselor at Canton High School and the owner of Dani, a therapy dog present at the gathering.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Demarest was the main coordinator of the event. With the combination of counselor experience and a therapy dog of her own, she brought this idea to life.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The program responsible for bringing the dogs, called \u201cVeteran Service Dogs,\u201d is based in Howell, Michigan. It provides service animals for veterans in need of assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not only do veterans benefit from these services, but many of the dogs in the program were nursed back to health from abusive homes and unfortunate situations. Calypso, previously known as Daisy, was chosen by the program due to her luckless past. Her ribs were visible, and she was extremely underweight. Thankfully, she is now healthy and ready to support someone who needs her help.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/studenthealth.georgetown.edu\/\">Georgetown University Student Health Services<\/a>, finals can cause students stress, bringing a physical, emotional and psychological impact.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.therapydogs.com\/\">Alliance of Therapy Dogs<\/a>, \u201cThose suffering from depression, stress, anxiety, and loneliness may find it difficult to open up, yet the presence of a therapy dog gives unlimited emotional support. Dogs won\u2019t judge or condemn those they visit, and they provide smiles and a sense of security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The experience was new to P-CEP, and was an attempt to combat the rising levels of stress and anxiety around this time of year. According to students, this plan worked its magic.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBringing the therapy and service dogs to school before finals was both inspiring and educational,\u201d said Jamar Williams, Canton senior. \u201cWhile meeting and playing with several dogs and meeting their owners reduced my stress and improved my confidence before my final exams, I also had the amazing opportunity to learn how each owner and their dogs benefit the community, from providing service and aid for the visually impaired to finding items for disabled veterans. Overall, it was an excellent experience that helped me gain the trust in myself to\u00a0perform well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>NW-13. Human Interest Feature<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Human interest features appeal to the emotions of the reader with inspiration, motivation, pathos or humor and often make effective use of quotes. Enter descriptive, personal experience or accomplishment, or humor in this category. These are generally shorter stories. Submit a PDF of the print page(s) on which the story was published or the URL to the story on an online news site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>JUDGING CRITERIA<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Lead captures attention, arouses curiosity<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Emphasizes new element, fresh angle<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Colorful, lively presentation; effective form\/style<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reflects adequate research, sound interviewing techniques<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Avoids summaries of published materials<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Effective use of facts\/quotes<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Interesting; appeals to the emotions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Proper diction\/grammar<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1st Place, Human Interest Feature 2022-23, Division 1, News Writing By Samantha KnightThe PerspectivePlymouth-Canton Educational Park Walking into a classroom the day before final exams can fuel stress and anxiety for any high school student. However, walking into a room full of all different breeds of support dogs replace these feelings with comfort and ease.&nbsp; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61,4],"tags":[206,20],"class_list":["post-6620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-humaninterestfeature","category-nw","tag-2022-23","tag-division1","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Mikayla Mazza","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=14"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-1IM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6620\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}