The upcoming month at SkyView Academy will be daunting — standardized tests, essays, final exams, and the workload can be stressful for students.
But when they see a two-legged Chihuahua happily rolling along with the help of a cart, their challenges are put in perspective.
“It makes you wonder if we can do it, too,” said Abi Scafe, an 18-year-old senior. “Can we still be happy if we go through those hard times?”
Scafe, along with SkyView Academy seniors Sarah Knapp, Alex Rivera and Nathan Bujarski organized SkyView’s first Coping & Overcoming, a de-stressing event for the school.They served healthy food, played smooth jazz, invited Colorado Comfort Canines to cuddle and set up stations for finger-painting, sand castle building and a trough of Orbeez, those super water-logged balls that kids like to play with.
Oh, and Bujarski led a dodge ball game because pegging a classmate with a ball also can be a release.
The students hope the event will become an annual thing for SkyView, and they hope to create a model that other schools can use.
“At the end of April and the beginning of May, it’s a really high-stress time,” Knapp said.
The seniors decided to invite the therapy dogs because, “Our whole school is big on dogs,” she said.
Sure enough, when a girl’s soccer game ended Saturday afternoon the team came inside to cuddle dogs, including Deuce, the two-legged Chihuahua. The students also played with the dogs before eating.
Deuce was born without front legs, the victim of an irresponsible breeder, said Ken Rogers, a board member of Colorado Comfort Canines.
Rogers custom built a cart, and Deuce rolls along for treats and ear scratches.
“They think they’re normal,” Rogers said. “They get along just fine.”
The therapy dog organization was founded after the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, Rogers said. The goal is to provide comfort to people during traumatic events such as violence or natural disasters. The dogs are certified, and all handlers are trained in critical incident stress management so they can identify when a person needs more help beyond a dog cuddle, he said.
When the high school students asked if the dogs could come to the de-stressing event, Rogers loaded up Deuce and his friends and traveled from Steamboat Springs to help.
“When they asked us to come down we thought it would be a great fit,” Rogers said. “It’s what we do.”
Saturday’s de-stressing event ended at 5 p.m., and, for all their efforts to help other students relax, the organizers said they would wind down when it was over.
“It’s so ironic. We were planning a de-stress event and we were stressed about it,” Rivera said.