Roxy™ Therapy Dogs Launches Roxy Responders Trauma Response Team
Press Release – For Immediate Release
Contact: Sharon Fleck, President, Roxy Therapy Dogs, 609-558-8721, sharon@roxytherapydogs.org
January 6, 2022
Doylestown, PA - Local nonprofit Roxy™ Therapy Dogs recently organized a formalized group of specially trained volunteer therapy dogs and their owner/handlers called Roxy™ Responders. Specializing in on-call trauma response, the group was created to bring comfort to children and youth experiencing upsetting reactions to traumatic events. The initiative is the brainchild of Sharon Fleck, President of Roxy Therapy Dogs, who felt a call to action in the Spring of 2021 after a local student was killed in a car accident on prom night.
Roxy teams were at the school in the days following and through graduation day to provide comfort, calm, and compassion to both students and staff as they navigated the mixed emotions of mourning the loss of a peer and looking forward to graduation that week. “After seeing the devastation in our school community firsthand following the tragic loss of a student, I became acutely aware that we as an organization need to be able to do more for our community during events which feel unbearable to our kids,” says Sharon.
Roxy Therapy Dogs provides specialized training to the Responders through the Bucks County Intermediate Unit, NOVA, and a local veterinary behaviorist including classes on Trauma 101, Compassion Fatigue, How Trauma Affects Children, and Recognizing Signs of Canine Stress. Roxy Responders are available to all school districts or organizations that serve children in Bucks County as well as those within 20 miles of Doylestown. The newly appointed Volunteer Director of Roxy Responders is Andrea Dadigan (andrea@roxytherapydogs.org) of Doylestown who volunteers with her Leonberger dog, Lowen.
The group of 35+ Roxy Responders has been present at schools in the Quakertown district this week, comforting children in the aftermath of the deadly Christmas morning fire which claimed the lives of an 8-year-old, an 11-year-old, and their father.
In addition to the Roxy Responders program, 85 Roxy therapy teams provide five other community service programs free of charge in Central Bucks schools, local hospitals, the courthouse, and more. All were put in place at the request of the community and each fills a specific need. Roxy Therapy Dogs services are provided by volunteers and are funded completely by donations.
Roxy is grateful to the law firm Antheil Maslow & MacMinn, LLP, who quickly and generously donated funding to cover custom therapy dog bandanas for the four-legged Responders.
To donate or to volunteer please visit www.roxytherapydogs.org.
Roxy Responder Director Andrea Dadigan and her therapy dog, Lowen.