May 2010 Graduation

To all my loyal readers who keep checking back here for an update, my sincerest apologies!! I hope that I will be getting back into writing on my blog because I really do enjoy it and it's a great way to get the word out about CCI and Service Dogs! (Plus I get to talk, what's better than that??)

Today was a huge day at CCI for we had some regions graduating dogs today as well as kicking off our 35th birthday celebration!



This was a great photo montage that was shown at the beginning of the graduation. It's amazing how this has progressed over the years and the many different things that have happened as well.
As per usual, I did a Team Training lunch for the new graduates about a week and a half ago. It's so awesome to meet the grads on a relaxed level and to learn their stories. I even found that I had a loyal reader in the class! He read my blog and asked why I haven't posted here in awhile (oops!). So I told him that I would make sure to post about his graduation.

The New Jersey Chapter was sending off Ella IV and Estelle II to AT and graduating India III so it was a pretty exciting day! Another exciting event was that Nuri's brother Nico graduated as a Skilled Companion! (And her sister Namiko was selected as a Breeder about a month ago!) Go OMSI pups!

Nico's Puppy Raiser was asked to speak as the Puppy Raiser Speech and she did a fabulous job! It's always fun to hear about other puppy raisers and what their experiences are. At the February Graduation the Puppy Raiser speech was given by a young girl who was diagnosed with a brain tumor when she was 10 yrs old. She was granted a wish through the Make A Wish Foundation which was to raise a Service Dog for someone who needed one. Her dog graduated with the first Veteran graduate for the Northeast Region.

The matriculating pups were then presented and we were cheering on Estelle and Ella (not related!) and their puppy raisers.

Ella being presented by her PR

Estelle being presented by her PR

We then listened to the speaker for the graduating class. Again, an awesome speech! It's great to hear about the graduates' experiences while in TT. It's never easy in TT and I know they work very hard!

Class Speaker

Then each graduate was presented with their dogs and of course the tears were flowing everywhere in the room. It's amazing to see people's faces just light up as their dog is presented to them. When people ask me how I can give up my puppy I just remember the looks on peoples' faces and it makes it all worth it. There's no way of capturing that moment, but when you see it, it makes your mission that much clearer.

India III being presented to his new graduate!

Nico IV presented to his new graduate!

It was a great graduation and, as always, I look forward to the next one in 3 months!