2008 Woodie Awards
By Carolyn Starks - Chicago Tribune
Issue date: 3/20/08 Section: News
|
They wanted to see the dogs.
In the aftermath of the terrorizing Feb. 14 shooting by gunman Steven Kazmierczak, comfort came to the shaken campus from an unusually calm pack of four-legged therapists, whose mission was to find people who wanted to pet them. The weeklong presence of these comfort dogs has been so missed at NIU that campus officials are working to bring them back.
"In many instances, they gave to students things we couldn't give them as mental health professionals," said Elizabeth Garcia, a counselor at NIU. "Some students didn't want to talk to counselors but talking to the dogs made them feel better. I saw people sitting on the floor with them, talking to them like they were humans."
The 12 dogs were from Animal Assisted Crisis Response, an elite group of therapy dogs trained to bring emotional rescue after a disaster or crisis. The dogs were used in New York after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and at Virginia Tech after the shootings there.
At NIU, comfort dogs rode city buses, went to basketball games, sat unnerved at noisy dorm parties and mingled inside pizza parlors.
Campus officials said the dogs drew crowds wherever they went, and there were constant requests from students and faculty members who asked to talk to them or pet them.
On the first day back to classes after the shooting, the dogs were brought to the newsroom of the Northern Star, the college newspaper.
"Everybody stopped what they were doing and ran to the dogs," said senior Eric Rood. "It's not going to make anything go away but there's something comforting about petting a dog."
One of those seeking comfort was faculty member Rebekah Kohli, a program coordinator in Women's Studies, who was nervous when she returned to the campus Feb. 19. She said she had memories of wounded students running into her building, bloodied and seeking cover.
Kohli tried deep breathing, but found herself smiling less and looking over her shoulder too often. One morning, she looked outside and smiled at the comfort dogs. Why not, she thought, and asked if one could come to her office.
"Tikva came up to my knee and she's got this puff of hair - I mean really thick fur - that just sticks up all over her body," Kohli said. "I petted her and she rolled over on her back. It brought joy and a sense of calm in the midst of a day."
Be the first to comment on this story