President Kristin Keller welcomed members and several guests to the meeting at Palmera Inn and Suites
Kevin Courtney offered the prayer and led the pledge to the flag.
Announcements:
Education committee chair, Dick Storm reported that he would be attending a meeting today and there will be a lot of opportunities for volunteers soon.
Thanksgiving baskets will be delivered on November 23 and we will hold the raffle drawing that night as well.
Immediate Past President Lynn King filled in for Sergeant at Arms Suzi Oliver. She collected happy dollars.
Guests: Ed Barnhart, guest of Bev James, Marco Sanchez, guest of Kevin Courtney; Sandy Mcquire, Olivia, and Lucas O'Nan guests of Kristin Keller.
Speaker:
Today's program was Zoara, Comfort Dog
Zoara is a trained Lutheran Church Charities Comfort Dog at Island Lutheran Church on Main street in Hilton Head Island. She interacts with people at churches, schools, nursing homes, hospitals, and in disaster response situations to bring comfort and a calming influence. She brought her friends Larry and Terry along to give us a very informative presentation about the work of these dogs.
There are two LCC Comfort dogs in SC, two in GA and one in FL. The five dogs sometimes work together. LCC comfort dogs are all AKC Golden Retrievers who begin their training at 8 weeks old. The receive 2,000 hours of training over two years and are all owned by a church or school. Zoara came to Hilton Head Island in 2018.
We learned the difference between: Service dog, works with one person often to assist with a medical condition, red vest - do not pet when they are working; Emotional Support Dog, works with one person, assisting with emotional issues such as PTSD; Comfort Dog, works with many people giving comfort and calmness, has 2,000 hours training, blue vest with "please pet me" since they bring comfort to all; Therapy dog, receives 6 hours of training. In Zoara's case, she has 5 people who work with her and THEY must be trained to all use the exact same commands and gestures to remain consistent. Comfort dogs respond to about 35 commands to adapt to two different situations - normal school, nursing home, etc. visits and disaster situations. Every dog in this ministry has a biblical name, their own bible verse, and facebook page. Zoara's verse is Psalm 32:8 and you can find her on facebook at "ZoaraComfortDog". Covid-19 has caused the ministry to make some adjustments like not visiting the hospital, but having Zoom meetings, meeting outdoors, including outdoors during medical workers shift changes. Locally Zoara has visited St. Francis Catholic School, Greets visitors to the Island at the Airport, First Presbyterian Day School, Christ Lutheran day school, among many others. When able to get back into hospitals they can resume military ministry at the Naval Hospital and graduation at Parris Island.
