17 minute read
BOOKSHELF
from May/June 2020
Christina Ries Unlikely companions
In a time of isolation and mandatory distancing, it’s important to remember and celebrate all kinds of relationships. These stories illustrate the surprising bonds that can emerge when you bring a child-like open-mindedness to friendship!
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Set at a sea-side bed-and-breakfast called the Mermaid Hotel, this whimsical book celebrates the friendship of two sassy heroines — one young, one old. Written by Sophie Dahl, granddaughter of Roald Dahl, it treats young readers with the same reverence and wit as her grandfather did. Ages 5-8 • $18.99
Local artist Kayla Harren imagined “unexpected animal combinations” in this new board book about God’s never-ending love. The result is a world of dappled sunlight where kids encounter pals at every turn — on a sailboat, at the beach, in a hot-air balloon. (Bonus: You can sing along to this book with Ellie Holcomb on YouTube!) Ages 2-6 • $12.99
This large hardcover gives off a book-report vibe, but in the most breezy, bite-sized way. Thoroughly researched and brightly illustrated, it tells the true story of 50 animals who forged surprising human bonds, defi ed the odds and aided in groundbreaking discoveries. Ages 6 and up • $21.99
Rendered in color pencil and watercolor, this is the sweet story of how a furry, unwanted creature can rearrange your home — and your heart. Ages 4-8 • $17.95 watercolor, this is the sweet story of how a furry, unwanted
Georgie is afraid of the knight; the dragon is afraid of the knight.
Together, these improbable friends conquer their fears. Ages 3-7 • $16.99
Keep your child safe.
Always put every medicine and vitamin up and away every time you use it. Also, program your poison control center’s number in your phone: 800.222.1222.
To learn more, visit UpandAway.org
In partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
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www.thesheridanstory.org Join our fight against child hunger! Over 200,000 Minnesota children were living in food insecurity before the coronavirus pandemic. The need for nutritious food has since skyrocketed. You can help change the story of child hunger in our community.
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For 40 years Haven Housing has helped break the cycle of homelessness and despair for women and children.
You can join us in our life changing work.
Former residents of Haven Housing
Brea Vandergon, 13, of New Brighton, hangs out with Gregg, her 70-pound Labrador and mobility-assist dog. Brea, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, relies on the dog to help with tasks such as opening and closing doors and picking things up. Photo by Tina Mortimer
Dogs to the rescue!
These specially trained animals aren’t just pets. They’re everyday heroes for Twin Cities kids with special needs.
BY TINA MORTIMER
Trying to get a 70-pound Labrador to pose for a photo is no easy task. The Labrador, Gregg, only wants to look at his companion, Brea Vandergon, not at the camera.
Brea’s father, Cedar Vandergon (attempts to get the 2-year-old service dog to rest his head on his daughter’s lap. As soon as he removes the portable, speech-generating device from the front of Brea’s wheelchair, however, Gregg uses the opportunity to jump up and give Brea two big, sloppy kisses, knocking over the treat bowl attached to the wheelchair’s side in the process.
“Classic Gregg!” Brea quips, wiping her cheek, and everyone laughs.
This is classic Brea. The 13-year-old New Brighton girl has a quick smile and an even quicker wit. She uses a wheelchair because she has cerebral palsy, a disorder that severely impacts her movement and muscle tone as well as her ability to communicate.
And yet she can communicate with Gregg just fine.
Vandergon recalls the first time they met Gregg, early last summer.
“Gregg immediately began responding to Brea’s communication device giving commands,” he says. “It was really cool to see. He was completely engaged with her — and she with him.”
While Brea’s younger sisters had their hearts set on a guinea pig, Vandergon and Brea’s mom, Julie, decided a service dog would be a better fit for their family, especially with Brea desiring more independence.
A few months later, they welcomed Gregg into their family.
“Gregg is a very eager helper and loves to work,” Vandergon says. “He picks up things Brea drops and places them on her lap. He can open doors with a tug attached, close doors and activate handicap buttons.”
Gregg even puts her clothes in the hamper, which is a big help at bedtime.
“He’s really helping her be more independent,” Vandergon says.
Dogs in service These tasks are all part of a regular day’s work for Gregg, a mobility-assist dog specially trained to help kids like Brea have a better quality of life.
He’s one of five types of service dogs provided by Can Do Canines — a Minnesota-based nonprofit organization dedicated to making life easier for people with disabilities by creating mutually beneficial partnerships with specially trained dogs.
Started by Executive Director Al Peters in 1989, Can Do Canines, based in New Hope, provides assistance dogs for people with hearing issues; mobility needs; autism; seizure disorders; and diabetes.
While the bulk of the organization’s clients are adults, Can Do Canines has provided 115 assistance dogs to children since 2007, at no charge to their families. The organization also covers the first two years of shots, exams and food.
Raised to serve Can Do Canines trained its first child mobility-assist dog in 2002 and became an early provider of autism-assist dogs in 2007.
While the wait for a child to receive a mobility-assist canine companion like Gregg is just a few months, the wait list for an autism-assist dog can be up to three years, which is why the organization recommends families apply as soon as a child is diagnosed.
“These dogs are life-changing to families,” Peters says. “They remove the tension and anxiety and just make life easier.”
On any given day, 200 dogs and puppies are being raised to serve at Can Do Canines.
Individual volunteers foster and train the dogs in basic commands and manners, plus crate and potty training. (Can Do Canines also works with volunteers from a local prison program.)
The final stage of training, handled by Can Do Canine’s staff, involves working with the dogs in their new homes. The dogs that don’t get paired with a human become pets or go on to serve other organizations as therapy dogs, also known as emotional-support animals.
Can Do Canines is recognized by Assistance Dogs International — the leading authority on assistance dogs worldwide. Its certification signifies that the facility upholds the highest standards in assistance dog acquisition, training and partnership. In Minnesota, only two organizations are ADI-certified: Can Do Canines and the Hopkins-based Helping Paws.
Helping Paws, started in 1985 as a pilot project of the University of Minnesota’s
— Cedar Vandergon, father to Brea, who relies on a mobility-assist dog from Can Do Canines
Center for the Study of Human-Animal Relationships and Environment, became an independent nonprofit in 1988. The Hopkins-based organization provides service dogs for two groups — children and adults with physical disabilities and veterans or first-responders with PTSD.
Calm under pressure While many dogs can function as mobilityassist dogs and learn to open and close doors, retrieve dropped objects, pull wheelchairs and more, autism-assistance dogs require a special kind of personality and temperament.
Most important, Peters says, an autism-assist dog must possess the ability to remain calm under pressure and love a child no matter how the child treats it.
Autism-assist dogs, like mobility-assist dogs, are trained to provide comfort, support and practical assistance with everyday activities. However, for kids like 10-year-old Gage Gasper of Big Lake and 12-year-old Olympia Quast of Lake Elmo, autism-assist dogs also serve as four-legged bodyguards, providing constant protection to the children not only from outside elements — but also from themselves.
Gage and Olympia both tend to
Service animals: The Americans with Disabilities Act defines a service animal as a dog (or in some cases other animals) individually trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. The tasks performed by the dog must be directly related to the person’s disability. The great benefit of having a certified service dog is that by law, they must be allowed access to anywhere their human can go, such as stores, restaurants and medical facilities.
Service dogs typically wear a cape or harness that lets people know they’re working and should not be disturbed. Can Do Canines’ dogs wear bright red vests; Helping Paws dogs wear blue.
ESAs: In recent years, Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) — raised to provide comfort and companionship to individuals with PTSD or other mental health disorders — have been gaining in popularity.
While an emotional support animal may provide much-needed support, it’s not specifically trained to perform tasks to assist an individual with a disability.
It’s an important distinction when it comes to the law. While service dogs as defined by the ADA can go anywhere their owner goes, an ESA cannot. Moreover, it’s illegal for a person to attempt to pass off an ESA as a certified service animal to a business owner.
Who provides service dogs?Can Do Canines and Helping Paws are the only Minnesota-based, Assistance Dogs International-certified service dog organizations, but there are countless more that serve Minnesota. For a complete list of agencies, see assistancedogsinternational.org. Considering a service animal for your child? Visit disability.state.mn.us/service-animals for more information and resources.
↑ Olympia, 12, of Lake Elmo, spends time with her autism-assist dog, a standard poodle named Mindy. Photo by Tina Mortimer
self-harm. Olympia may bang her head on the floor when she gets frustrated. Gage may scratch or pick his skin if he’s feeling overwhelmed.
Before Can Do Canines, a simple trip to the grocery store would at best be nerve-wracking, and at worst, dangerous. The fluorescent lights, crowds and ding of a store might send Gage into a complete panic, for example.
“Gage used to have a lot of meltdowns,” says his mom, Lindsey Gasper. “He was hurting himself and me as well. It was getting to the point where I thought he might overpower me.”
Common outings that most families take for granted — trips to museums, movie theaters or sporting events — were out of the question for Gage and his family.
“We’d be shopping and — right in the middle of the aisle — I’d need to hold him in a tight bear hug to stop him from screeching and scratching his face,” Gasper says. “I didn’t know what to do.”
Taking back control That was before Gage had Linus. The yellow Labrador’s uncanny ability to soothe Gage when he’s in distress means the Gasper family, who live in Big Lake, can go to a store or even a restaurant without the usual angst involved in leaving the house.
When Gage does get overwhelmed, Linus nuzzles his neck or sits on top of him and gently applies pressure until Gage calms down.
What Gasper refers to as Gage’s “meltdowns” used to occur multiple times a day. Now, thanks to Linus, they happen only a few times a month.
“We feel a bit more in control when Linus is present, knowing we can utilize his special skills at any time needed so Gage can be as normal as any other kid,” Gasper says.
Linus wears a special harness with a leash for an adult to hold, but it also includes a handle for Gage to hold. If Gage drops the handle, Linus will stop moving to alert the family. Gage can also be tethered to Linus with a belt latch and leash.
Mindy, an autism-assist standard poodle, joined the Quast family in spring 2018.
Before Mindy, Olympia would bolt away from her parents in stores and rarely sleep through the night. When Olympia would get upset, calming her was always an arduous process.
Olympia now sleeps through the night and calms down quickly when upset. With Mindy by her side, Olympia is also far less likely to wander off .
“When we go on walks, Mindy is linked to Olympia,” Mindy’s mom, Michelle explains. “Mindy really helps in stores to keep Olympia close and slow her down when she tries to get into something or bolt away. Mindy is a constant, calming presence and has had a very positive impact on Olympia.”
Removing the stigma It makes perfect sense why a child on the autism spectrum would respond to and benefit from a service dog. A dog’s intentions are always clear. It’s love, always unconditional. And dogs, unlike humans, are relatively uncomplicated creatures that have a calming effect on their people, especially when they’re raised specifically to respond to signs of anxiety or agitation, as most autismassist dogs are.
Cedar Vandergon, Brea’s dad, was quick to recommend a service dog, but not for the obvious reasons.
Gage’s family has found that to be true also. During Gage’s episodes in public before Linus, empathy was scarce.
“Nobody tried to help us,” says Jon Schreiner, Gasper’s partner. “We got a lot of looks.”
Now with a service dog, wearing a red vest with a Can Do Canines logo, they can not only go anywhere (in normal, non
— Al Peters, founder of Can Do Canines
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COVID times) — the doctor, the dentist, museums, theaters, the Mall of America and even Minnesota Wild hockey games — but they also can feel the warmth of others.
Dogs help people socialize more readily. But they also deliver the added bonus of sending a signal that the owner has an invisible special need — and might need a little extra compassion.
Worth the wait Autism-assist dogs can’t be trained overnight. Sometimes it can take a couple years. Teams may include breeder hosts, whelping homes, puppy raisers and others.
Gage started as No. 206 on a waiting list with Can Do Canines. Three years later, he had worked his way up to the top. It then took a while to transition Linus from his foster home to his forever home with Gage.
Though the dogs can cost as much as $25,000 in an open-market situation, Gasper says she paid only a $50 application fee, thanks to the nonprofi t organization’s support.
“We were locked in our house for so long,” Gasper says. “It was worth the wait.”
Tina Mortimer is an essayist and a contributing writer for many local publications. She also happens to have a service dog in her family. Sage, a 3-year-old mobility- and hearing-assist dog helps her father navigate a world without sound. Follow Tina’s work at tinamortimer.contently.com.
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So the kids are at home for the rest of the school year. Here’s how to lighten up — and do a bit of self-care — while you get used to the grind.
See frolicking farm babies: Lift your spirits for real with videos of adorable baby animals set to cheerful music, courtesy of the Minnesota Zoo. Your kids will love the time-lapse videos, including a chick hatching, and animal story times, especially the hilarious goat one. See mnzoo.org/farmbabies. Work out for free: The YMCA is off ering free-for-all workout videos (yes, even for non-members), including yoga, bootcamp, barre, cycling, Pilates, dance, tai chi, kickboxing, weightlifting and youth sports, plus videos made especially for kids and older adults. You’ll also fi nd Facebook Live exercise and mediation sessions, plus Daily Dozen challenges for kids, which include 12, fi ve-minute bursts of activity that don’t require any special skills or equipment. See ymcamn.org/y-at-home.
Zoom for mental health: NAMI Minnesota (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and its partners are off ering a rich schedule of classes for all ages, including how to cope with resiliency during COVID-19. See namimn.org.
Try diamond painting: This intricate new crafting trend involves attaching tiny, shiny, faceted beads (square or round) to sticky, paint-by-number patterns using a special wand. It requires patience and dexterity, so we recommend it for children who are at least 5 years old. Because you’ll likely spend more than a week on each project (great for adults, too), it’s perfect for the pandemic. See joann.com, michaels.com, diamondartclub.com or amazon.com.
Listen to the Okee Dokees (above): Step 1: Immediately go buy the Okee Dokee Brothers new two-disc album, Songs for Singin’ — a hardcopy with its included songbook. Step 2: Memorize the opening track, Hope Machine. Step 3: Watch a fan video of a kid singing the song while playing a toy banjo (tinyurl.com/okee-banjo-boy) and any bitterness in your heart will melt. See okeedokee.org.
Join Team Women: Whether you’re trying to stay energized about your work-from-home career or hoping to start a new adventure, this fab networking and personal development organization is going strong in the digital world. See a list of virtual and livestream events at teamwomenmn.org/events.
Get to know autism: Ask your kids if they know someone with autism and/or if they know how to be a good friend to someone with autism. If they don’t have many answers, it’s time to educate them about the spectrum, which now includes
an estimated 1 in 59 children. You can fi nd books with characters on the autism spectrum at commonsensemedia.org or fi nd one on Page 6 of this magazine — Cameron Goes to School by a Twin Cities mother of four.
Put on a science show: The STEM toy company Thames & Kosmos is delivering free, high-quality science activities, including DIY Science Shows your kids can put on at home. They’re really cool and pretty cute, too. See thamesandkosmos.com.
Color a local landmark: Though our coloring contest concluded earlier this month, you can still download and color the amazingly cool page, featuring the wonderfully iconic Spoonbridge and Cherry sculptural fountain, at mnparent.com/coloring.
Remember, parents can color it, too! When you’re done, tag us @mnparent on Instagram and we’ll share your works of art.
Find more stay-at-home survival ideas at mnparent.com/stay-home.
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