"Mail for Maya" at Jamison Elementary
Sue Mihalchick and her two golden retrievers, Maya and Brodie, began volunteering for Roxy™ Therapy Dogs in April 2022. They wasted no time in getting involved in Roxy’s Elementary School Reading Inspiration program by visiting Mrs. Moriarty’s 5th-grade class at Jamison Elementary two days a month — one with Maya and one with Brodie.
In the fall, Sue came up with a fun project to encourage students to read and write called “Mail for Maya.”
Here’s how it works. The students write letters to Maya in advance of Sue and Maya’s visit and deposit the letters in a special “mailbox” in the classroom that Sue created for the purpose.
“On the day of our visit,” says Sue, “the students sit on the floor with Maya and me and read their letters to us.”
Maya, the Roxy dog, tells us more about the program
Pack Leader (a.k.a. my mom, Sue) and I came up with a new fun idea for the kids in our classroom. It's supposed to be a reading to the dogs program but we wanted to mix things up a little.
So, when my brother, Brodie, visits the class, they do Books for Brodie, but when I go they do Mail for Maya! The kids write me letters telling me interesting things about themselves or their pets, and they ask questions about me, too.
Then they put their letters in this super cool mailbox Pack Leader made just for them. On the day of my visit, they read me the letters and then I take them home and write back to them! Awesome, right!
If you would like to be a therapy dog like me, ask your humans to check out Roxy Therapy Dogs so you can share your love and kindness. It's so rewarding."