A Roxy Field Trip to Doylestown Airport

Roxy volunteer Janet Stavrides and her dog Nike began visiting a Multiple Disabilities Support (MDS) class at Unami Middle School in January of 2019. It was love at first sight all around! Nike loved the students and the students adored Nike. As often happens with Roxy teams who visit classrooms year after year, life happens and friendships with teachers grow. In this instance, the class teacher asked Janet if her husband, Paul, would be willing to host her class for a field trip to Doylestown Airport. Paul was a private pilot who flew in and out of Doylestown Airport.

Paul readily agreed and plans were made! The teacher prepared a list of discussion topics for Paul and the students. We were hopeful that planes would be flying that day.

Luckily, the students arrived on a fairly crisp and clear day with lots of airplanes moving in and out. The pilots would all wave to them and the aides helped the kids to wave back. After watching the planes for awhile, the class went inside of the Fixed Base Operator (FBO) which is a MUCH smaller version of an airport terminal and gathered around as Paul began his discussion. The teacher had made custom boarding passes for each student including the country each child had selected to visit. The FBO owner stamped each boarding pass and handed each one back. After the presentation, the class boarded their bus and headed back to school.

Nike at Unami Middle School in 2019

Each student received a boarding pass to the country of their choice and got the official FBO stamp to travel!

After the field trip, Janet wasn’t sure that the students really got anything out of the experience other than a day away from school so she asked the teacher for feedback. She was pleasantly surprised to learn from the teacher that the visually impaired student who was very auditory was still able to see the movement of the aircraft and hear the sounds associated with take-offs and landings. Two of the other students also listened and remembered much of what they heard.

Then using one of the students’ “talkers” (a.k.a. a small computer with “buttons” that the student has to purposefully push that will say for the student what they want to say), the teacher asked if the airport was fun and received an answer “yes.” When asked what was most memorable about the day, the response was “loud.” Finally, when asked if interested in another trip to watch more planes, the response was “all done.”

So many lessons learned that day. The most valuable being that none of this would have been possible without Nike and Roxy Therapy Dogs. The mutual support and comfort of Roxy teams and children is priceless!