Taking the Lead | It Started with a Tour

On this episode we talk with longtime volunteer Mike Toger about why he got involved with Leader Dog and continues to volunteer. 

What is Taking the Lead ?

Leader Dogs for the Blind empowers people who are blind or visually impaired with the tools for safe and independent daily travel. Our goal is to educate, advocate, and share real life experiences of those with blindness. Come learn, laugh, and grow with us.

Christina: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Taking the Lead podcast where we empower people to be unstoppable. I'm Christine Hoeppner with my co-host, Leslie Haskins in Timothy
Leslie: Kno. How's everything been going? What's everybody?
Timothy: Well, uh, my weekend was not good with Glacier. We went to a, uh, oh, a restaurant and we walked in and went to our table and there was a lady sitting there before we got there and she saw a glacier and, oh, what a beautiful dog.
Can I pet your dog? Oh, and I politely said, no, ma'am. Uh, she's a service animal. She's working right now, but thank you. And, um, she's probably in her early seventies. Mm-Hmm. And so I took glacier underneath the table like I normally do, and we're talking along with our guests that we were talking to, and, uh, all of a sudden glacier just darted from underneath the table out into the aisle and was eating something.
And I just grabbed, I thought somebody maybe accidentally dropped something, so I grabbed her real back and scold her a little bit and put her back and then [00:01:00] tucked her underneath the table. Well, to come to find out, the lady was throwing food at Glacier.
Leslie: Oh no. Yeah. That's so frustrating. And uh,
Timothy: by the time I found out, they have already left.
Yeah. And so, I mean, the lady at worked there, came out with one of those, uh, dust things and was sweeping the mess up. I mean, it's a lot everywhere. Mm-Hmm. And I was just angry. I was
Leslie: very angry. That is so rude. Yeah. Very disrespectful. Yeah, because
Christina: you don't know, glacier could be on a special diet. I mean, one, you shouldn't be doing that in the first place, but two, like you're just giving a dog food that isn't approved by its owner.
Timothy: Yeah. I don't, I don't feed her human food. Maybe she'll get some cheese, but that's about it. Yeah. Well, it's more disrespect to me
Leslie: also. Yeah. She asked and you politely declined. Right. It's okay if people ask. People are curious. We know that they always wanna know about the dogs. Yeah. And you answered and told her, you know what?
[00:02:00] Not right now. It's an appropriate time. Glacier's working service animal. Uh, no thank you. And, and kind of that disrespect to, to go against your wishes. I'm sorry that happened. That's really frustrating. Yeah. It,
Timothy: it was. I mean, everybody's who's deciding maybe to get a guide dog, you need to realize that the dog always gets attention.
Mm-Hmm. And that could be one of the downsides of having a dog. Um, because you'll be drawing a lot of attention. Yeah. And so, uh, you just never know what your interactions are gonna be. So I, I mean, I can handle it as long as the other person I'm talking to can
Leslie: handle it. Mm-Hmm.
Christina: Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that, Tim.
I think because I think that's so important. I'm sure it happens to, you know, other listeners so they can probably relate and kind of. Relate to what you're saying. So you said that she left before you knew that this was happening. I guess if this happens to anyone else, the way you handled it, would you give, do you have any advice for anyone else?
Timothy: Well, I would be [00:03:00] calmly 'cause you're out in public. Mm-Hmm. And you are still, you know, it's, you wanna do it calmly, but you need to be stern with them. I would say, Hey, you know, I've asked you please not to interact with my dog. And, you know, it is a misdemeanor for somebody to interact with the service animal.
It is against the law. And, uh. Um, I wouldn't threaten him with that, but I would, you know, calmly say, Hey, you know, what you did was illegal. Um, but uh, just be calm about it and, uh, be direct and. Smile while you're doing it. I guess I just glad you were calm
Leslie: to me. Glad, I don't know how calm I would be in that situation.
Timothy: I know Cheryl would get on them very pretty quick. Yeah. Cheryl, ve de uh, defends us and, uh, part of my other family, if they were there, there would've been, have been a hot mess. But, uh, if we had found out about it while they were there, we would've, uh, we would've said something and calmly done it.
Leslie: Sure.
But, uh, it's a moment to advocate and educate and let 'em know why it's inappropriate. You know, the damage it can do to Glacier, potentially, [00:04:00] and the training that it kind of is, then it's encouraging her to be scavenging and looking for food, and we can't have that, especially in public places. So people don't understand always the, the results of their actions, right, the consequences, and really they all fall to you.
Timothy: I think sometimes when I'm out and about, I believe people are testing Glacier to make sure she is a true service animal. Mm. That's interesting. And uh, I do get that a lot in my travels. Mm. Because there are some dogs out there that are being, uh, identified as a service animal who are truly not sure.
Yeah. And I really believe people are testing these dogs and then they go off and No, that's not a real one. That's crazy. Do that. So, I mean, there are people out there who are just. They're not your friends. Yeah. And so it just be calm if you gotta confront it. And, uh, because just getting all, all hot and bothered and, and then doesn't accomplish anything.
Yeah. Yeah. You being calm about it probably is [00:05:00] more effective than you
Christina: yelling at somebody. Yeah. And at the end of the day, you can't control somebody else, but you can control your, your reaction.
Leslie: Yeah. That's the one you need to control. So inspirational this morning, you guys. I love it. No, I'm sorry that that happened to you, Timothy, and I really appreciate you sharing and it's a different perspective.
And honestly, I'd never really thought about people testing the dog. Yeah, that's very interesting. But I could totally see that happening. Yeah. Mm-Hmm. And how frustrating that must be. I'm very
Timothy: proud of Glacier Mm-Hmm. When she does what she's supposed to. 'cause it's tough for these dogs just to sit there and see a cute little baby go by or another dog or whatever.
But when it's food and you got a lab, that's too much
Leslie: temptation. Yeah. That's drawing the line. Yeah, that's drawing the
Timothy: line. I forget my train. I'm over there getting that chicken
Leslie: wing. Yeah,
Christina: they are, they are, uh, food motivated for sure. Yes. Well,
Leslie: let's do Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, thank you. Sorry that [00:06:00] happened.
But uh, also thank you for giving some examples in how to handle the situation. Yeah. 'cause I'm sure you are not alone in this, but Yeah, I'm sure I'm not. Well good. Well hopefully next weekend will be better. But thank you for that. And uh, today we have a new guest, someone who is a long time volunteer.
Who regularly goes above and beyond at Leader Dogs for the Blind? Yes. Mike Togar has
Christina: been a volunteer at Leader Dog for over six years and continues to volunteer in multiple capacities. He's a blind full walk volunteer, a community engagement volunteer, and hosts to one of our fabulous can ambassadors.
Finley who happens to be in the room with us today. I did say hi to her before I did say hi to
Leslie: everybody else. Didn't even greet me or Mike as walking, just straight step Finley. So see Timothy, we also experienced that at our act, always about the do. Yeah. Unbelievable. Well, mark, welcome to, I mean, she did come
Christina: and say hi to me, so I will say that, wow, you guys didn't get up.
Timothy: I'm, I'm sure I've been interested in Finney too. Yeah. [00:07:00] Good morning Mike. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you for being a volunteer for Leader Dog. So tell us a little bit more about yourself.
Mike: I am a small business owner who about seven years ago took a tour of Leader Dog and was totally enthralled and had a wonderful guide dog experience tour the facility and went home and signed up to be a volunteer and also to get a career change dog.
We had just lost our golden retriever.
Leslie: You know, we hear that all the time. Yeah. People like have one experience. 'cause we talk about it as a community engagement volunteer, which we'll get into a little bit that Mike is, we never know what our return on investment is. When we do presentations or tours or things like that, we don't know what's gonna come of it.
Is somebody gonna be a donor, somebody gonna be a volunteer, raise a puppy, uh, suggest services to somebody else, or maybe nothing. Yeah, it could be any of those things. So it's always interesting, but. Impactful for you. You decided you went home and you signed up to be a volunteer. Uh, what was the first volunteer position [00:08:00] that you applied for?
Mike: To work as a Blindfold Guide for HPL, the Harness Power Leadership, uh, corporate
Leslie: program. Mm-Hmm. What does a Blindfold Guide do?
Mike: I help people at events walk under blindfold with one of our ambassador dogs, so yes, I help. Them get oriented with the dog and then we do a short walk. Sometimes it's just very short.
Sometimes it's on a small obstacle course so they get an experience of what it's like under blindfold to walk with a dog.
Christina: Yeah. It's something that we as team members as well get to do when we're first onboarded and it, Mike and Finley did my first walk. Oh my goodness, as well. Right? Wow. It's very cool.
Yeah.
Leslie: It's a great opportunity to educate the public, build some understanding, some empathy, right. And it, and we remind them, right? It's just a small glimpse, like the walks that Mike and the team are doing are meant to be seamless. It's meant to, you know, help you understand what it's like to feel or feel like, what it's like to [00:09:00] walk with a guide dog.
Can't talk today. Um, but never realistic, right? Yeah. We know that our clients are experiencing so many other challenges, and at the end of the day, we can take the blindfold off, but it's so impactful, right? People who have no idea, it may be about leader dogs for the blind, or service dogs or guide dogs or anything like that.
Get this opportunity to close their eyes and trust an animal to guide them around obstacles. And it is really impactful. And I think you probably, Mike, have helped so many other people join Leader Dog as a. Donor or volunteer or other capacities. Well, thank you.
Mike: We, we really try and it's really interesting.
Probably the biggest comment that I get doing the walks is the trust that the client and the dog must develop because that client's life is in that dog's hand and it's really amazing. I've gotten to know a lot of the clients and dog teams. It's amazing what they do. I mean, I just do a little bit with a, you know, highly trained dog.
But what they do every day is amazing.
Timothy: It's, so what is one of your favorite parts [00:10:00] about Leader Dog that you see every
Mike: day? Mike? It's an amazing campus. Everybody is on board on the mission. It's a wonderful place. It's a great place to volunteer. Uh, I'm there all the time. I love it. It's a great group of people and I get to play with the dogs.
Christina: Yeah. You know what's amazing is when you go to campus is a team member. You are outnumbered by our volunteers. So Mike, people like you and the rest of our volunteers really do so much for us and we can't thank you enough.
Mike: Friday I did, uh, blindfold Walks with 42 fifth graders from
Leslie: the local. Oh, we definitely can't thank you
Christina: enough for that.
Mike: Oh, we were outnumbered. There was munchkins everywhere.
Leslie: For sure. It's so good and when Mike says he is there all the time, he's there all the time. And we're also calling him last minute like, Hey Mike, is there any chance you are available to do this? And he is. The flexibility that you have and how often you step up, we so, so greatly appreciate [00:11:00] it because not only, like we mentioned in the beginning, is Mike a Blindfold Walk volunteer.
So again. He spent the time to be trained to be upskilled, to work with these dogs in this fashion and provide that experience to others, but also he's a community engagement volunteer. Do you mind explaining a little bit more about that role? Well,
Mike: that's a new role last year where there's about nine of us that we go out and handle a lot of small events that you two just didn't have time to do all of them.
So we do everything from retirement homes to schools, to girl scouts, to business groups, to museums. I know we just finished up a big program at the uh, Henry Ford. Mm-Hmm.
Leslie: Yeah. It's incredible. So we have this great group of volunteers who again, took the time and have the dedication to come learn more about Leader Dog in the sense of like our history, our numbers, how many dogs we're putting out, more about blindness in general, what are some common, um, diagnosis that people have or what they experience [00:12:00] so that they can go out and do community presentation.
So we get tons of requests and we hate saying no because we, again, we don't know what the. That return on investment is gonna be, one thing I always talk about is, uh, one of our guide dog mobility instructors, he heard a presentation at his school when he was in like fourth grade or something, and he knew then he wanted to be a guide dog mobility instructor.
So sometimes these things Yeah, that you do, you have no idea till maybe 15 years later the impact that they had. So, uh, we're so appreciative that Mike and the rest of the team are the community engagement volunteers and go out and do these really fun community presentations. Well,
Timothy: I know when I was up there at Leader Dog, I, I saw how, how important the volunteers are with Leader Dog.
I mean, they come and pick you up at the airport. Uh, they go get errands for you during the week if need be. And then they have a, a night where we have game night. The, there were volunteers. They're helping us out. Do the game time. So I mean, the volunteers are very important with Leader Dog. 'cause if the volunteers weren't there, there was just more responsibility for the staff and it just frees up the staff to [00:13:00] concentrate on guide dogs and o and m and everything.
So thank you to the volunteers for doing what they do.
Leslie: Yeah. It's so interesting, the different roles too, as a volunteer. How did you pick the Blindfold Walk volunteer? Were there others that were tempting or this one you thought like it just seemed like a good fit? It seemed like
Mike: a good fit. When I checked it was one of the.
Two jobs listed. Oh my God. Yeah. So then I came in and interviewed with Dave, ran the HPL program and started the following week.
Leslie: Interesting. That is so cool. Yeah. 'cause Dave was doing the harness, the Power of Leadership, which was a really big presentation. So you kind of started in that role. And then we just recently, uh, kind of added on this community engagement, which we already had a ton of experience for and it made sense.
Yeah. Um, but we haven't talked about our lovely lady here laying on the floor.
Mike: Finley's doing exactly what she's supposed
Leslie: to be doing. And it's not Christina. Yeah, I was be like, um, this
Christina: could be go one or two ways.
Leslie: Me just laying on the floor. We're talking about
Christina: the [00:14:00] dog,
Leslie: Finley. I think they're picking up.
She just,
Mike: well, Finley's doing exactly what she should be doing. She's laying at my feet. Uh, she still is amazing under harness and. When we go on our walks, I have to remember that I am a client and let her do the leading. She gets really upset with me if I go to step off a curb without asking.
Christina: Yes. Wow.
Yeah, and it's great that we have canine ambassadors. Um, Leslie and her team are in charge of all of our canine ambassadors and it's great to be able to, so these are dogs that work career change for, you know, they probably would've made it through training. Some of 'em have ear infections or something that we wouldn't wanna.
Put that burden onto the client to have to, you know, take to the vet all the time and all of that sort of stuff. So it's great that we have these dogs that can, we can take to events
Leslie: and show like, this is
Christina: how our guide dogs act. This is how a leader dog should act or, um, kind of give the [00:15:00] public that little
Leslie: inside.
Yeah. And it's nice to take a dog the right that people can interact with. Like you were talking about, Timothy Glacier is a service dog. People should not be interacting with her. Um, but Finley, right, typically is wearing, not the harness, but a canine ambassador jacket. So similar to what our puppies or future leader dogs wear.
Um, it's like a little vest almost, and it's green. So we tell our audience, which we still always encourage people to always, always ask before interacting with a dog, but for us, green means go. So if they're wearing their Canaan ambassador jacket, um, typically yes, it's appropriate you can interact with these dogs because again, we know it's challenging to be around dogs that you can't interact with, which is why we kind of have this group.
They are not technically service dogs. Um, but they do still have all of those skills, uh, to make them wonderful. Finley's
Mike: a unique story because she did graduate and actually go to a client in upstate New York and in the first month, supposedly she developed a limp. Uh, they exchanged the dog out, brought her back, [00:16:00] Finley, went through extensive checks with the vet, couldn't find anything, so they moved her into the ambassador group.
I've housed her since November of 2019. So all through the pandemic, we literally walked hundreds of miles and I've never seen a limp
Leslie: Finley. She was, that was her way of saying,
Christina: Hey, I want a different job, maybe. Well,
Mike: and she's doing what she really should be doing. She's an amazing ambassador to, I can take her anywhere.
Best behavior, work under blindfold, little kids, older people. She is just
Leslie: amazing. Yes. Yeah, she went with me and Alyssa to Kentucky. She was my roommate. So Finley and I stayed together. She was lovely. Um, it was very nice. And honestly, we go on these trips and do these things and these dogs are so adaptable and just happy to jump in the car with us.
You'd never even know they're there half the time and just so, so good. We're so lucky to have these dogs to take for these educational opportunities because not [00:17:00] only are we doing this for potential donors or just people in the community or kids and things like that. That we also will use these dogs a lot of times for walks on Friday afternoon in o and m.
So an orientation mobility. If a client comes and, uh, is doing the cane week and they wanna explore the guide dog option and it's appropriate, a lot of times we use our canine ambassadors because they're gonna be a little bit more calmer of an experience, uh, versus our younger dogs still in training. We also use them for educational opportunities for, uh, certified orientation mobility professionals such as myself.
Who are coming to learn more about helping a client prepare for a guide dog, or how to help a client when they get home with a guide dog, orienting them to new environments. So a lot of times we call upon these dogs for so many different scenarios, and we're fortunate to have them, and we're fortunate that you, Mike, uh, care for Finley.
So she lives a lovely life. She goes home every day and sleeps and has a, a typical almost pet life. But then also always excited to come to work. So it's, it's been [00:18:00] fantastic. And you as a Blindfold Walk volunteer and a community engagement volunteer? Yes. It could not be more convenient on our end. Yes.
Because then Leslie doesn't
Christina: have to go, okay, we have to get a dog. She goes, Mike, just bring your dog.
Leslie: I'm like, if Mike comes, Mike has everything we need. The logistics are cut in a third, honestly. So you
Christina: make. Leslie's life a lot easier, is what she's saying. That's my goal of life.
Leslie: Absolutely. Oh my gosh. If everybody had that mindset, can you imagine?
That's bad.
Christina: I probably make it a bit more complicated.
Leslie: I know. No, and, and truly, Alyssa, too. Alyssa, uh, who is the outreach specialist on my team is fantastic. She does a lot of the logistics. She does a lot of the communication with our volunteers. And so it's just such a good group of individuals that we've got.
We're very, very fortunate. But Mike, what are some of your favorite events? When you think of the years you've been doing this, what are some of the fondest memories? Uh,
Mike: bark and Brew in the summer. Uh, we get all the runners coming off [00:19:00] and we're very busy and everybody wants to know about Leader Dog. Uh, dinner in the dark is also very interesting, which is coming up this Friday.
Uh, we do the photos with the people arriving in that and just wander around and people wanna know about the dogs. Uh, you know, I equate it to our goal and our mission is to help visually impaired people with mobility. But the dogs are what everybody wants to know about because they're around. They're amazing.
These are probably the most highly trained dogs the average public can see. I mean, you're not gonna get close to a police dog, a drug sniffer at the airport. But these amazing animals are interact with the public all the time.
Leslie: And you're right, I think dogs typically bring people into the organization and then the people mission, I think make people stay.
Oh yeah. You know, it's so interesting. It's, it's the whole packet. Yeah. And to see that connection between animals and humans [00:20:00] and how they're helping and interacting.
Mike: Well, I've been told by some clients that not only do they get help with their visually impaired, they get a new best
Leslie: friend. I. Yeah. Is
Christina: that true,
Timothy: Timothy?
Yeah. It, it, it's true. It's true. My big question, Leslie, for you, is how does somebody become a volunteer?
Leslie: Oh my gosh. Thank you Timothy, for asking. Uh, as Mike mentioned, if you go to our website, leader dog.org, uh, become a volunteer is almost one of the biggest buttons on there because again, as mentioned, Christina said.
We have, uh, I think almost 400 on campus volunteers and about 400 off campus volunteers who are typically in the role of puppy raiser. So we just could not do what we do at our organization without volunteers. And volunteers have a role in almost every single department at our organization. But you can sign up for open slots, um, on the website.
You can also sign up for special events. So I know Mike also participates in all the special events or most times such as the dinner in the dark or the Light Up Leader Dog or the Bark and Brew. So if people can't [00:21:00] have that commitment of kind of a regularly scheduled volunteer opportunity, there's those kind of couple times a year opportunities as well.
Mm-Hmm. But it's interesting. So when we ask for volunteers. It's kind of like taking on a job. We want a year commitment. We want typically scheduled hours and days of the week. Mike, in your roles, it's kind of, we never know.
Mike: Well, I'm very fortunate. I'm only four miles away from campus, so that that helps.
So I'm not coming too far, and all I have to do is tell Finley we're going to work and she's ready to go. This morning I told her at eight o'clock we're going to work until we left. She sat by the door with her tail wag and she loves to come to work.
Leslie: Yes. She's so
Christina: sweet. Well, and I'm looking at our volunteer webpage right now.
If you are interested, there's three openings right now. We need client celebration assistant, a client driver, which that's a really cool volunteer opportunity 'cause you go to the airport and pick up our clients and bring them back to campus for training and then take them. Back home as well, or [00:22:00] not back home.
You're not driving all over the US No. You take them back to the airport. To the airport, yeah. Yes. I'm, and then a volunteer veterinarian as well. So we have three openings right now
Leslie: and the, the educational opportunities that come with each one of those, you know, we don't just throw into something and it's sink or swim.
Right. We really do provide the training and we upskill everybody so that they're comfortable. And we just recently had a community engagement volunteer meeting. You know, we've been doing it for about a year now, so we kind of got back together and discussed as a group what's been working, what hasn't been working, what additional resources do we need, um, because you guys are the ones really doing it.
So we're here to help, support, and wanna provide you with whatever you need. Um, what do you think, so far as the community engagement volunteer, some of those presentations that you've done, what have been some of kind of the most interesting topics or questions that you've gotten?
Mike: We did an event at Detroit Historical, uh, museum [00:23:00] and it was billed as come and learn about Leader Dog and we had about five families come who were very interested, really didn't know Leader Dog was right in Rochester Hills.
Wanting to know about it for a relative. So we had four interactions with people who thought they could use the services and we talked to 'em, showed some literature, and then referred 'em on to the right people at Leader Talk. So that was probably one of the most impactful ones we did.
Christina: Yeah, I love that because you never know who you're gonna meet and it's, you know, crazy to me is that so many people don't realize that like we are.
Where we are in Michigan, even people who live in the metro Detroit area, um, are like, oh, I've seen the campus, but I didn't know that. Like, that is actually where everything happens. Um, so it's really, you know, going out, educating, and then also bringing people to campus. Every time someone comes to campus, every time I've done a tour or I've [00:24:00] heard from people, they're like, wow.
I did not know that this was all here, because when you drive by on, uh, Rochester Road, uh, you're like, oh, like, oh, there's Leader Dog. It looks like a, it looks like a tiny campus until you actually get on campus and really see everything. But something about our volunteers too is that some of our team members started as volunteers as well, which
Leslie: our CEO Yeah.
President, I mean. Yeah, which is fantastic. People fall in love with the mission and you just wanna get involved in whatever capacity you possibly can. And, and many volunteers like Mike have multiple roles as a volunteer. So it's um, pretty rare actually. I feel like that everybody, a volunteer would only have one role, which is crazy to me.
The time and dedication that we have, uh, from you, Mike, and everybody else, and we've been fortunate in our community engagement volunteer group. To have a couple people who are new to Leader Dog, so just kind of learning out and they're already dipping their toe in and have already signed up for [00:25:00] multiple roles or, um, just really getting involved with the mission and it's, it's so fun to be a part of.
Well, I
Mike: wanna go back a minute to the campus itself. When I did the tour, uh, back in, what was that, 2017? I knew what Leader Dog was. I've never lived further than 20 miles away from that campus, but I really didn't understand it. So coming on a tour was, was just fascinating. Uh, the admin building in the dorms and then the canine center, now the canine Center at any time can have anywhere from a hundred to 150 dogs in housing.
And it is super clean it. The dogs are so well cared for. A lot of psychology was used in building that these dogs are in the villages and they're calm, and it's, it's amazing. I've always been a dog person. I've always had dogs in my life, and just the care that these dogs have is amazing for [00:26:00] this many dogs.
Christina: Yeah, so I interviewed during covid, so I actually had a virtual interview. The first time I was on campus was my first day, so coming to campus for my first day at work, I was mind blown. I was like, oh my gosh. I did not realize the state of the art facility for the dogs and all of that. But, um, just on tours, we do do public tours.
Um, it's $5 a person and you have to be 10 years old or older, um, to attend one of these tours. So if anyone actually is interested, um, you can book a tour on our website. There's dates and all of that as well.
Leslie: And if you can't come to campus, if you, you are far away potentially if you go [e-mail], under the resources tab, if you go to our virtual learning, um, there are some really great videos on Campus Tour and it kind of shows you the ins and outs of the Canon Development Center and also the residents, which not many people get to see the residents, uh, because typically we have clients there and we wanna protect their privacy and keep them safe and and [00:27:00] whatnot.
So getting an inside look into the residence where our client stays. Is actually pretty cool. And Mike is fortunate too. He's built some great friendships with a couple of our clients who he's spent a lot of time with, which is always wonderful because then he can kinda share their perspective or stories.
And that's always really helpful when educating the community too, is to give some examples of how these dogs have impacted people's lives. Well, over
Mike: the years we've traveled, uh, with the programs and we actually did the harness, the power of leadership for the Philadelphia Eagles Management. In Philadelphia just before Covid, where we actually went and trained their senior management.
And did the dog walks and all that, and they were so gracious. They actually got, let us see a Lombardi trophy being here from Detroit. It was kind of a unique thing. And then we got a complete, we had complete run of the facility, went down on the field. It was really a great time. They got a lot of a, we had a great time as volunteers and staff.
Leslie: It's fantastic, right? 'cause we're bringing [00:28:00] quite the production. So we're bringing team members, we're bringing volunteers, we're bringing canine ambassadors, and most importantly, we're bringing clients, right, to share their story and their experience. So Mike, you have done so much for this organization and you continue to do, and we just rely on you so heavily and we're so, so thankful for you and Finley.
Um, and thank you for being here today and sharing your story and why. You know, leader Dog is important to you. We really appreciate it. Well, thank you very much and thank you so much to our listeners for listening to the Taking the Lead podcast. I'm Leslie Hoskins with host Timothy Kyo and Christina Hoeppner.
We hope you enjoyed learning about Mike and the important roles that he plays at Leader Dog. Please join us next time as we continue to dive into the world of blindness. Yes, and if you'd like
Christina: to learn more about volunteering or applying for free services at Leader Dog, you can head to leader dog.org or call us at [phone].
And don't forget, you can reach us at taking the [e-mail] with any questions or ideas. If you like today's podcast, [00:29:00] make sure to hit subscribe and check us out wherever Podcast Street.