The Ocean City Fire Department hosted the local volunteer group People and Puppies at Work for Sight 4-H Club, or P PAWS at Station 2, 2901 West Ave recently, drawing a large number of visitors and residents. Those in attendance had the opportunity to meet a group of special dogs.
The event was designed to raise awareness of the Seeing Eye organization, which trains and provides guide dogs for the sight-impaired, and to recruit volunteers to help raise the pups.
Captain Bernie Walker (center) of the Ocean City Fire Department greets Seeing Eye puppies with firefighters Walace Gilchrist (left) and Ryan Kampmeyer
Puppy raisers are assigned a dog, typically a German Shepard, Labrador or Golden Retriever, and serve as “foster home” for the animal. Volunteers receive the dogs at seven or eight weeks of age and keep them until they reach 13 to 16 months of age, according to Amy Stover of P PAWS who organized the event.
Approximately 70 percent of the dogs in the program complete their training successfully and go on to become Seeing Eye dogs.
Ocean City’s Magi Kernan (right) meets a future Seeing Eye dog and Amy Stover from P PAWS.
“Taking part in this program is a great way to give back to the community,” Stover said. “For families, it is a great way to teach children responsibility.”
Volunteer puppy raisers teach basic commands, socialization and take the animals on “field trips” alone and with other dogs in the program to places such as the airport, the mall and other settings the animal and the blind person are likely to encounter. The recent visit to the fire station was the latest example.
Members of P PAWS, a puppy raising club representing Cape May and Atlantic counties, arrives at Station 2 of the Ocean City Fire Department for a recent event.
Captain Bernie Walker hosted the group as part of the OCFD’s policy of community outreach. For more information on the program or to volunteer to raise a puppy, please visit
www.seeingeye.org.
