Walking the Halls with Purpose: Grace and Bodi's Mission of Kindness

Recently the school has had a new student brought in this year. Grace Baxter, a senior here attending Belleville Junior/Senior High School, has decided to help and volunteer with CARES Inc. and has agreed to start helping train the new service dog, Bodi. Grace hopes to successfully train Bodi to be a good service dog that can help others in the near future.

Grace has chosen to help CARES with training dogs for the program. She decided to start in the early summer and learned that she would be getting a dog in late summer. She attended the NCK Fair on August 7th

through the 11th. When she first walked in, the staff immediately brought Bodi to her and told her should be training Bodi in socializing him so he is more used to the lively environments he will find himself in the future. Grace does this as she has wanted to help others as an Animal Assisted Therapist and finds this moment to be a great chance to learn about the job more.

This has brought a significant change to the school as now the school is definitely more lively with instead of just students roaming in the halls there is now a service dog walking around with us making it a much more diverse environment. It is definitely a fresh site to see a dog around the school, let alone one training to help others.

Bodi has been walking around the school with Grace but many still don’t know much about him so here is a short rundown. Bodi is a black Labrador Retriever who is 11 months old. He is most likely going to be a mobility dog helping others in wheelchairs move around due to how large and calm he is at such a young age. Around January Bodi will be brought back to CARES where he will go into more specialized training and see the longevity of his service so he can be the best he can be and help people live a better and happier life.

The story of Grace and Bodi is truly an inspirational story for the hopes of someone wanting to start a dream job and hope for the future. Whether it be Grace and her hopes to help others in the future as a Animal Assisted Therapist, or Bodi to grow up to be a great service dog who can hopefully help many people for the future. Congrats Grace and Bodi for this achievement and hope the best of luck for the rest of the time for them being here.

Owen Jack Doyle

Data Specialist/Journalist