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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 Christina Heppner with my co-host Leslie Hoskins in Timothy Kunio. Um, happy 2024. Happy New Year, man. So weird. This past year flew by, but we're going into our third. Year of the
Leslie: podcasts. Can you believe that's unbelievable, Timothy?
Three years unbelievable with Christina and I You've survived. I
Melissa: know. I mean, well, yeah. Remember Christina? She came in here green.
Timothy: I never knew
Christina: her. Yeah, she first started, I had just started at Leader Dog and they were like, you wanna. Do this podcast. And I was like, I have the background, so Sure. And yeah, I remember our first little run through, we did it in the office like via Zoom, zoom,
Leslie: zoom.
We just did a zoom recording with the three of us. Yeah.
Christina: And chatted and I was like. I don't know what to talk to these people about. I don't know
Leslie: them. I don't even, you never met this guy before? That's funny. It wasn't awkward. No, it wasn't like wasn't. It was very natural. [00:01:00] And I remember we sent it to Denny, our manager.
Yeah. Uh, she gave us some really good feedback, some pointers, and then we came, I think the next time we worked together was we were in
Christina: studio here recording and recorded. I cringe, to be honest, listening back to that first one. I do, I do. Just because like thinking back, like. You grow so much. Yeah, a lot's changed and so much has changed.
And so like when I listen back to it, I'm like, Ooh, why did I
Leslie: say that? But you knew nothing about blindness. I didn't. Coming into this didn't. Which was perfect. Didn't. That's exactly what we needed. Yeah. Timothy, sometimes him and I were in it. We're in it too
Christina: far. Yeah. Yeah. We got a lot of experience. I would ask you guys to explain things a lot.
Yeah. In those first. I still do though, because I come from that perspective of like, now I know a lot more. Yeah. But. Thinking about people who might listen, who don't know anything, who are trying to learn and be more accessible. So yeah, sometimes
Melissa: it takes more than one discussion for it to sink in, you
Leslie: know?
Absolutely. Well, with adult learning, what do [00:02:00] they say? It takes seven times, like hearing something seven times before it finally sticks. What Mm-Hmm. Yeah. Adult learning is fascinating. If you ever get a chance to dive into that a little bit more about how adults learn specifically and how they have to be involved in their own learning process.
Yeah. It's
Christina: quite interesting. I'll say it's a lot harder as an adult to learn things.
Melissa: Yeah. Well when you, when you get to my age, it's, it's hard to teach an old dog new
Leslie: tricks, so, oh, you can't say that though. Look at you. You came for o and m how many years ago and you learned all sorts of new things and then you went in to do guide dog and Oh, I know.
Melissa: You're still learning
Timothy: new
Melissa: tricks. I know, but one day there's gonna be a death come back for a refresher, so, uh, that's right.
Leslie: We'll be ready for you. Oh my low. Can you imagine, Timothy, you and I back in the streets together?
Melissa: Rochester Hills won't be the.
Leslie: They will not be the same. That's a good,
Christina: Leslie will make sure she's teaching that week one.
Melissa: And I know where all the good eating places are now down there, so I may have to
Christina: stop, you know? And you know what, I'll just take the week to
Leslie: shadow. [00:03:00] Yes. And the good news is I won't be eight months pregnant and Timothy won't accidentally miss a turn so that I have to keep walking. Well, I know to expect
Melissa: the unexpected with you, Leslie, so
Leslie: that's
Christina: good.
Leslie: Crazy. You were pregnant? Yeah, I was pregnant. Yeah. She was pregnant with Alice, with Alice. And Wow. Yeah. Timothy was getting back at me. I can't remember. We were laughing about it. Yeah, it was a joke, but he kept walking even though he knew he was supposed to turn back and I'm huffing it behind him. We had a good time.
Christina: And Alice is how old now? Alice is
Leslie: four now. Oh gosh. Four years ago. Yep. So wonderful things. I was just mentioning actually that this will be my 10 year anniversary at Leader Dog, which is very exciting. I like to count 11 'cause I did my internship in practicum the year before, so I was add on an additional year, but I guess it doesn't count.
Um, but lots to be grateful for and lots of experiences within these last 10 years. So, and happy three year to us on this, uh, this podcast. Yeah. Going into the three year. Yeah. And a
Christina: delight with you too. And we have to say thank you to everyone who's [00:04:00] listened and kept this podcast going, oh my
Leslie: gosh. The support we have and the ideas coming in and suggestions and our clients and volunteers and team members just being vulnerable and sharing their stories.
And we really couldn't do it without everybody. Nope. So thank you. Yes. But we are starting out 2024 with so many exciting things, including our new Fearless Leader, president and CEO, Melissa Weiss. Welcome. Yes. Melissa
Christina: is an industry respected nonprofit executive with over 20 years of experience in fundraising and senior management leading.
Staff and services that support people who are blind or visually impaired. She served as the chief Philanthropy Officer at Leader Dog since 2008, and during that time she grew total philanthropic revenue at Leader Dog by 121% and estate's revenue by 164%, enabling greater client service provision. And she also successfully led the largest capital campaign in Leader Dog's history, raising 14.5 [00:05:00] million for the renovation of it.
Our world class canine development center and. On top of all of that, Melissa is a one of just 117 people worldwide to hold the designation of advanced certified fundraising executive, and that's the highest accreditation for professional fundraisers. And now let's just add on to her accomplishments because she's our newest president.
And CEO at Leader Dog. Melissa,
Timothy: welcome to the podcast. Happy New Year, and congratulations on your new position with Leader Dog. So how's it been for the past couple of
Melissa: weeks? Thank you my friend. It has been, uh, tremendously exciting. It is an honor to be the new president and CEO of Leader Dogs for the Blind.
This. Historic storied organization with such an iconic legacy and tremendous future. I, I am just honored. Uh, thank you Timothy, for your kind words. Well,
Leslie: we're delighted to have you and be starting off in [00:06:00] 2024 to hear all of the things. Uh, let's go ahead and jump right into it. What are some of the things we can look forward
Melissa: to this year?
Yeah, some big things ahead and I think, uh, it's such a, a. A wonderful time for all of us. A real inflection point in our work. Mm-Hmm. Uh, serving our community, advocating with our community, and. Creating a new future for the organization because we know we are building upon tremendous strengths here at Leader.
We have, uh, tremendous offerings that I think serve, uh, our community in really unique ways, and you've focused on so many of those offerings in this podcast. I think coming into 2024, what I'll be really focusing on is what needs to endure. This tremendous, tremendous organization and what needs to change and grow and evolve to be nimble, to meet the needs of our clients in different, um, communities in different navigational environments around the country.
And, [00:07:00] and on that note, I want to, I'll speak directly to our clients who are listening, uh, right now and say. I am honored to advocate, uh, with you to walk beside you to take this organization to the next level with you. And you are gonna hear that as a message from me. Um, I. Every day, I believe, uh, your voice, uh, your opinions, your feedback to us on, uh, what you encounter in the environment, the barriers that you break through.
This is what's important to us. We need to understand. From your perspective and design our programs with you at the center. So I'm really excited about working with you, our clients, and I know you are sitting in communities around the country listening to Leslie and Christina and Timothy regularly, and I can't wait to meet you when you come to Leader Dog and talk to you in [00:08:00] person.
Christina: So, you know, we're right into the new year. I know I'm sure you have a lot of long-term plans, but you know, in this new year, what can we see in the short term? Any short-term
Melissa: things? I think there's some really exciting things that are happening right now as part of our current strategic plan. And, and, and our clients will know.
We are sending out surveys to really look at what are the. Unmet needs in our community and how can we focus in on those unmet needs and create service offerings, um, support systems that serve you, our clients as a whole person. And we want to do that, you know, with your voice. So I'm really eager for those survey results to come back.
I know Leslie's sending out some surveys too. Agencies as well. And from those results, we're really gonna come together as a community and say, what's next? How can we think about, um, the evolution of our service provision? And we've celebrated 20 years of o and m service on this [00:09:00] podcast. Mm-Hmm. So I think now it's time to look at what, what next?
What, what's new? How can in this ever-changing world we live in, what is the next best step, the next new level to bring leader forward?
Leslie: I think it's so exciting to have those conversations because sometimes as professionals we do, we think we know best. Mm-Hmm. And we think we know everything, and we don't, we're not living it, we're not breathing it.
We need to get back and talk to our clients and ask them, what can we do? What can we do better? Or what can we add on? You know, we've focused really on mobility for so long, but we know, you know, in the, in the car on the way to the mall, we're also then talking about a little bit of technology and we're talking about labeling and we're kind of.
Adding in all these other side little lessons here and there, um, to the best of our ability. But there are so many other things that our clients can benefit and I, I'm excited to hear back from them as to what they want and what they need. Um, and also from other professionals, you know, what are some reasons why they wouldn't send a client to us or refer a client to us?
Absolutely. [00:10:00] Or, um, if, what else do they wish that we could provide that they aren't able to provide out in their agencies or services? So I'm really excited about this survey too, and getting these, um, results back to continue growing Leader Dog in that fashion. So. Delighted to hear that. Timothy, any thoughts on that yourself?
Oh yeah. Well,
Timothy: that's a good idea and you know, we're starting anew. Yes. Sue Daniel did such a great job and she left it better off than when she got it. Absolutely, absolutely. I know Melissa's gonna do the same thing. And so it's, it's exciting time and I can't wait to see what Melissa does with lead her dog gun with her, her guidance
Melissa: and her direction.
Thank you, Timothy. I think we have a, a really important place in the community. Um. Nationwide and globally, and that primacy for Leader is really important to me. That we use that voice, that we are very present, um, advocating, you know, creating the right service mix for our clients and, and being right there with clients right beside you.[00:11:00]
Um, I'm, I'm excited about that and I'm excited with partnering with. Other organizations in the community. I sit on the board of the American Foundation for the Blind. We partner with all kinds of consumer organizations, NFB, we are, we're just there as part of this community, and we have to constantly elevate our voice and make sure that our clients are at tables around the country.
Whatever table you're sitting at, uh, whatever industry that. Is, we wanna help you get there. We wanna be a part of that story. So I'm really excited about our voice in this space.
Timothy: Melissa, you, you've done so much for Leader Dog in 20 years. I know how Leader Dog has changed my life. How has it changed your life?
How has it impacted, where have you started and where you are right now?
Melissa: Ah, Timothy, thank you. I've been reflecting on my journey, you know, through this, this interview process was a national search and it gave me a lot of time to reflect on my journey. And I had come from, um, a multinational corporation, [00:12:00] Christie's in London, the auction house, you know, working with high net worth individuals there.
And I loved, you know, the humanitarians and the philanthropists I met. And I wanted to shift to the social sector, to nonprofit work. So I started as a volunteer in the canine center, and yesterday I met with the canine care team, whom I hold in, in, in such high regard. You know, animal welfare, canine welfare, our canine partners are so important in this work.
And sitting with my guides, who I worked with at that time was so meaningful to me because they're there working every day. They're hands on. Every canine partner, you know, working to, to build this mission. So spending time with them was so valuable to me. I learned from them. I learned from being a leader, dog puppy raiser.
So I wanna send a special message of gratitude to every puppy raiser and breeding host, family listening right now, you are such a vital part [00:13:00] of our community, and being a part of that community was transformative for me. Recently we celebrated some tremendous distinguished volunteers. Um, you know, Nancy Colombo, Carolyn Crow, Michael and Patty, French people who've raised 34 puppies.
This is transformative work. When you meet humanitarians like that, it can't help but influence your trajectory. And so I constantly think every day, what am I bringing to this table? What can I do every day to elevate this conversation, to elevate our work? Because this is activism, our role, if not us, who, if not it, us bringing up these issues, elevating these issues, uh, speaking out every day for our community, if not us.
Who, and every one of us, whether you are a breeding host, family. A lion, a puppy raiser, a puppy development care team member, a canine care team member, a guide dog mobility instructor, a member of our resident services [00:14:00] team. This is a community that's fighting for a better world of inclusion. So together we have this important mandate.
This has transformed me being a part of this community, and it's a fight I, I am up for every single
Christina: day. That is amazing, Melissa. And you know, you talked. A lot about the community aspect. You know, you yourself started in our volunteer community, but really our community as a whole is like a family. Every time people come in they say, you know, I feel like I'm with my second family.
Absolutely. So
Leslie: how
Christina: in this new year do you plan to continue to grow and develop that, um, community
Melissa: aspect? I think that, thank you for that question, Christina. 'cause it is community. It's what we can do as a community to constantly move this forward. So I and the senior management, senior leadership team will be very visible within all of our different constituencies.
I. You know, I want to meet regularly with puppy counselors and puppy [00:15:00] raisers and breeding host families and be in those spaces, in those conversations. So, uh, to all of you out there listening, I, I'm so looking forward to having those conversations with you. So we'll be coming to those groups individually, having unique conversations with you, um, and.
Bringing that dialogue back to our decision making as we move into our next strategic planning cycle. And I'm really excited about that because as we discussed at the beginning of this conversation, our world is evolving. Services in our community are involving, and it's really important. We have the voices of each of those constituencies.
To understand how is puppy raising evolving? How is breeding evolving? How is our client's navigation in different spaces evolving? How is assistive technology evolving? And I'm really excited about how that can come together to create a new future for this organization. Absolutely.
Leslie: And we've heard you say leader repeatedly.
Yes. [00:16:00] And I love that. Yes. You know, we, we strive to be the leader in the field and within, um, blindness and low vision in general. And I just, I think it's so empowering when we keep saying leader. Yes. And it's something we strive to be and we're on the right path, right? Like, you have such great goals and a great reminder of why we are all here.
Here and what we are doing and we do talk about this family and community and no matter what the role, everybody is here for the same mission. Absolutely. And we see it every day, which is so empowering. Um, but as we talk about all of these big goals and things we're looking forward to, what do you anticipate some of the biggest challenges being going in with such broad and big goals?
Melissa: And that's always something to keep in mind because I think it is a truism. I'm sure you've all encountered it in your. Journey to Leader Dog. In your personal lives, in your professional lives, comfort and growth Do not coexist. Mm-Hmm mm-Hmm. Whether you're fighting through barriers to get services now in your community to get to Leader Dog, whatever [00:17:00] battle you're fighting personally, professionally, for services, we, we've got to push through discomfort for growth, and I think that will be true of Leader Dog, you know, to get to the next level of where we need to be, we need to sit in the moment.
Sit with change, sit with a bit of discomfort to get to that next level. Like raising a puppy. There's those difficult stages and you get through it to that next stage. Right? Um, and I'm looking forward to that growth. We are growing as an organization and, um, I love the word leader because often, you know, I've traveled to almost every state visiting clients and advocating for Leader Dog.
And many of our clients refer to us as leader. Mm-Hmm. And I love that because that is who we are. And that's what we've been in our groundbreaking orientation and mobility program in our services since 1939. We've, we've been the leader and I'm really excited about taking that to the next level. And I love our emerging young leaders at Leader Dog.
I mean, you see them [00:18:00] throughout the organization, bristling with ideas and uh, vitality for the organization. And I just love those conversations and ideating with them. Um, I. Everyone from Eric Rodman who leads our apprentice program, Kate Roberts, and our adaptive services, Sarah Dyke, who does tremendous work for the deaf and blind program.
Elizabeth Schultz in our kitchen. I mean, just incredible people with great ideas. I wanna elevate those voices so we can remove canopies and barriers and bring us through to that next level. And, and I think some of these new accreditations are really interesting and, and Leslie will know far more than I, things like the, um, certified, um, assistive technology specializations.
How can we layer on those services on top of what we do to serve the whole person? And I think there's lots of people at Leader Dog with lots of ideas. What that looks like.
Leslie: Absolutely. The Cadis program. Mm-hmm. Is definitely something to look into. And I love, you [00:19:00] know, the idea, right, of this reflection time period too, and like you said, sitting in kind of the uncomfortable or recognizing that we have, we have growth opportunities.
Yes. Right. We aren't doing everything exactly perfect right now. We can always learn. Can always gain. And we do have so many incredible team members with ideas. Yes. And they're invigorated and they're excited for all of the new opportunities. So I am super pumped about all of that. And another thing I know we've talked about a lot is getting right the, the client voices and, and having more team members who represent who we are serving.
Absolutely. And, you know, what are your plans for that? How can we bring more of our, our clients or the blindness and low vision community into our every day at Leader Dog?
Melissa: Thank you, Leslie. I think that's very intentional. We have to be very intentional about that. And whatever space you sit in, in the organization, in the community, be intentional about reaching out to include others in this conversation, whether it's joining committees [00:20:00] or boards in other organizations that represent our community, intentionally placing yourself.
In those spaces where you will meet people. I have found that in my work at the American Foundation for the Blind, I, I am a big fan of Eric Bridges and the work he does, and we wanna have him on this podcast. Yeah. And, um, meeting people in those spaces. So you meet people with diverse voices and perspectives and intentionally bring that.
Back to Leader Dog. I would ask that of everyone in our community, be inclusive, reach out, bring others into this space so we can have the diverse voices we need to get to that next level. I was, uh, arrived home from in the airport. I was coming from Tucson the other night, and I got off the plane and there was a puppy raiser there, like navigating the airport with a four month old puppy.
Yeah. And every time I see that. It always stops me in my tracks to see Leader Dog in action. Whether it's a client navigating Grand Central Station, [00:21:00] a puppy raiser working so hard with such intent. I'm just so moved by the advocacy and strength and courage of this community. And we've been doing this since 1939, since the Second World War, uh, through times of great conflict and depressions and change and evolution.
We can do this again and reiterate and elevate, and that's what's exciting and, and I love that part of it. As you said, Leslie, we'll sit in the change, honor the moment, honor who we are in our space and, and move the organization forward. How
Timothy: does Leader Dog look like for the next 10, 15, 20 years?
Melissa: Yeah, I think that's a really interesting question as this, um, as our space evolves, as service provision evolves, as client needs evolve, and I think we learn, uh, what that looks like as we move through time with not only, uh, what canine.
Welfare looks like what working with a leader dog looks like [00:22:00] in new communities. What navigating with new technology looks like in tandem with a dog or in tandem with your cane. What is that intersection between technology and more traditional modalities look like that's changing rapidly? Um, how can we understand that?
I will also say systems of care and support. To help navigate through all the emotional challenges one has in a continuum of, uh, change and adjustment to blindness. I think Leader Dog being a part of that space as well and helping and assisting and supporting people in their adjustment through a continuum, uh, of sight loss and visual impairment.
We wanna be there beside our clients. So I think it's looking at technology at mental health and wellbeing. At diversity and inclusion. And the lived experience and, and layered through that, the tremendous, um, continuing history of who we are as leader. So through [00:23:00] all those changes and technology and service provision, the continuation of the courage and strength of our mission, I.
Absolutely.
Leslie: Another thing we've talked a lot about too lately is accessibility. Mm-Hmm. You know, and we talk about being the leader, and I think this is an area that I know I'm personally super excited about, is not only making ourselves at Leader Dog more accessible to all. People with, with disabilities, not just blindness, but also being a leader in that aspect too.
So when we are doing presentations, whether it be to Lions, to the community, to other professional organizations or professionals, making sure that we're doing our best to represent our clients' needs and other needs. Um, so what are your ideas or thoughts in that space of accessibility and, and the goals for Leader Dog in that area?
I
Melissa: think there's so much that we can do in this space because our understanding as a community is always evolving. We're evolving together. We're learning together, and I think we can bring our learnings to our different [00:24:00] constituencies. I think a lot of our longtime puppy raisers and breeding host families would be really interesting.
They advocate so much in this space. They'd be very interested to know. What we are learning in the spaces of accessibility and how we model that and show that in meetings. So I think bringing our whole community into this conversation of accessibility and, and I would really love for us to model this for other communities as we move forward and are part of other spaces and conversations.
How can we model what good accessibility looks like? And I think, uh. We have to be humble that we're all learning, um, every day in, in that way, and we can learn from each other. And that's a big part of who I am as a leader, is be an Olympic learner in whatever space you're in. Be an Olympic learner. I, I learned from my fellow team members, I.
Every day, uh, you know, somebody will say something and I think, well, I've never thought of that, that way, or I, that's a really new, um, piece of [00:25:00] information for me. And I, I'm keeping, uh, I keep journals and I like to write and reflect upon upon these learnings because I. As I said earlier, this is our fight.
This is a crusade for accessibility, for inclusion, and uh, I have to think, you really have to understand your motivations for being in this work because the public is trusting us. Our donors are trusting us, our community, our clients. We each have a significant responsibility to do the very best we can every day.
For our
Leslie: clients. I wanna give both Melissa and Christina a huge compliment here. But when we talk about accessibility in social media, obviously both of you are very involved with social media. And Melissa, you're great at it. And Christina is a huge support of social media. But both of you together, when you, uh, started your first day as CEO, you put out the video.
Um, and it was, it met all these accessibility features and things that we've been talking about. And I wanna just point out to both you, Christina, and Melissa, for [00:26:00] being so thoughtful in that and, and wanting to address the public and welcome, you know, and say all the exciting things you've got going on.
But Christina, you've been fantastic with social media. She has, she has. And educating these other groups on how to be accessible because you're putting examples out. Every day in our social media platform. So yes, shout out. Just thank Christina. Christina, she's, thank you. You know, as we talked at the beginning, she came into this knowing nothing about blindness.
Yes. No. And look at you now, and you've learned so much. You've educated us internally and publicly. So I think you did a fantastic job.
Christina: I know you took my point. I was just proud to say that love, but thank you. That was very, very sweet. Um, Melissa, you know, we, we've worked a lot together Yes. On that social media Yes.
Stuff and the platforms moving forward. And something that I've seen come in through, you know, our social media and from other companies is they're seeing your videos. Yes. They're seeing. The way that you're posting and I've gotten even questions of how [00:27:00] can I be more accessible Yes. With my posting. So what is your plan for that moving forward?
You know, we've started these couple videos, are we going to continue this? Or how are we, because you're really meeting people where we are. We have people all around the world essentially who are supporting Leader Dog, who are part of. The client community, our community in general. So, um, do you have some plans moving forward on how to meet them in their
Melissa: space?
Thank you, Christina. And I'm very inspired, uh, by your work on those platforms and I've learned from you. So I remember the first time you reposted something. I did, I was so excited. I got it right. I got, I made it reel and I put it to music and you reposted it. I was so honored and. I, I think it's a part of adaptive leadership because I love meeting our community on Instagram or LinkedIn or all of our different platforms and having a different kind of conversation there.
So to our community, please. I'm Wise, Melissa on um, Instagram and I have LinkedIn and I do post a lot of my [00:28:00] adventures there as I call them. And my plans moving forward are definitely to communicate to our team and clients through multiple modalities. I'll be making monthly videos and audio to distribute to our team and clients just to talk about the big ideas and conversations we're having together.
And I just love the intersectionality of. Opening up Instagram and having the Leader Dog community come alive. I follow a lot of our young clients who are in college dorm rooms right now getting ready for finals. And I just love that we are a part of those stories. It's an honor to be a part of those stories.
And I, uh, you know, had one young client, he's, you know, preparing for her finals now in, um, Louisville. And when I, I got the new role, she responded with one word, slay, and I just loved it, made me so happy. And, uh, I just love all the different voices of our community. Yes. And, uh, being a part of, uh, and connecting others [00:29:00] and seeing those journeys, our puppy raisers, our breeding host families, our clients have such great presence in those spaces and, and witnessing our work in communities around the country.
I. It just opens the window onto our, our, our presence. So thank you to everyone who, who shares their stories so generously.
Christina: Yes. And Melissa, we do have to point out Colton Yes. Was in these videos. Tell us a little bit about who Colton is. Yes. Because we're gonna start
Melissa: seeing him more, right? Yes, that's right.
My love, my love, Colton. So I have. Always had dogs in my life since my first day on the planet. And I always will. I, I take, uh, the canine side of our work very seriously. And, uh, I, uh, have had multiple dogs from Leader Dog who have, have huge places in my heart. The puppy I raised who guided in Spain. I've had some retired leader dogs come to my family home and now I [00:30:00] have Colton.
Colton is a golden retriever, a very Goldie reddish golden retriever. Mm-hmm. And he's a big bloke. If you could see in the pictures, he's a very long, big golden. And, uh, if you follow me on, on uh, Instagram, he swims in the rivers a lot of weekends. So that's how we relax. We hike together. He came to me during the pandemic when we were, um, actually asking our community to shelter dogs in place to get them out of the canine center.
Mm-Hmm. So my family volunteered for that during the, um, pandemic and then he went back for training. The string of Carrie Price. He's a long time leader, dog guide, dog mobility instructor. And when he was career changed and had, after he had gone through the process of our career change system, I was able to adopt him.
And he has, uh, just a beautiful place within my family with my cat, Wellington, who are, they're very good friends. And, uh, I feel. [00:31:00] Having a dog in your life. They're the ultimate teachers of mindfulness. We learn from them as much as we teach them and work with them in our community. They teach us, and it's really important.
We respect that and we listen to that as we work with dogs as partners. Mm-Hmm. At Leader Dogs for the Blind. Absolutely.
Leslie: Well, thank you so much. This has been a fantastic, it's insane. I always love speaking with you and hearing all of your fantastic ideas. Thank you and appreciate you so much for all of the listening that you do for, from everybody in this Leader Dog community, whether it be volunteers, clients, team members, um, your, you know, everybody's voice is always heard and you make it a priority, so thank you.
Thank you Leslie for that. Thank you. Yes. 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 Hapner. We hope you enjoyed learning about all of the exciting things that Leader Dog has in its future from our new president and CEO Melissa w.
Please join us next time [00:32:00] as we continue to dive into the world of blindness. And if
Christina: you'd like to learn more about applying to Leader Dog or becoming a part of our community as a volunteer or a donor, you can head to leader dog.org or call us at (888) 777-5332. And don't forget, you can reach us at taking the lead@leaderdog.org with any questions or ideas.
If you like today's podcast, make sure to hit subscribe and check us out wherever Podcast Street.