Guide Dog Walk Exceeds Expectations

Jeff Green | May 31, 2023

The Lions Club of Land O’Lakes first annual dog walk went off swimmingly on a warm summer-like day last week.

The Dog Walk raised money for the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides, which trains and furnishes guide dogs for a diverse clientele with accessibility issues, including: vision, hearing, autism, diabetes, mobility, and more.

25 dogs of all sizes, and 50 walkers, many of whom having to overcome, with some help, accessibility issues of their own, participated in the walk, which followed the Northbrook Parade route. When the walk did a turnaround at Pine Meadow, residents came out to enjoy the dogs, which ended up being a mini-event on its own.

“We were going to stay about ten minutes at Pine Meadow, but the response to the dogs from the residents, and the staff, was so strong that we ended up spending over half an hour,” said Janet Wilson, the main organiser of the walk.

Wilson has made her career as a dog trainer, Kennel Club judge, etc. and deals with severe arthritis herself. That is one of the reasons why she jumped at the chance to help with the Dog Walk, and it was also her goal to make sure that the walk itself provided as many opportunities as possible for all members of the community to participate.

“We had three people in walkers participating, with a volunteer handling their dogs, and a bunch of other ways to make it a welcoming event for anyone who wanted to take part,” she said. “As usual in this community, people came together to make all that happen.”

In addition to the Dog Walk, students from North Addington Education Centre worked on an art project as their contribution to the event.

They prepared cut outs of mini-dogs, painted them and installed them on the fence around the Northbrook Lions Hall.

All in all, 330 students participated in the project, putting up 250 mini-dogs on the fence, as part of a carnival-like day. There was a bouncy castle on the grounds for kids to enjoy.

“It was a great day all around,” said Janet Wilson, and we raised a fair bit of money as well.”

The total raised at the Dog Walk was over $10,000, one of the highest totals among clubs in the Eastern Ontario region from one of the smallest communities.

“That’s almost 1/3 of the cost of a trained Guide Dog, which is $35,000,” she said, “a really good result.”