Primrose Kindergarteners Raise Funds for Guiding Eyes

SOMERS, N.Y. -- Professional guiding eye dogs Hayley, Sable and Lawson dropped into Primrose School on Wednesday to strut their stuff for the kindergarten classes. Hayley and Sable are ambassadors from the Yorktown headquarters of Guiding Eyes for the Blind. Lawson was visiting with his visually impaired owner, Becky Barnes.

The visit was to celebrate the completion of the children’s penny collection for Guilding Eyes.

“Every child in every one of the 11 kindergarten classes has collected a penny a day since school began in September,” said teacher Maria French. “Feb. 28 was the hundredth day of school, so now they’ve each collected 100 pennies. That comes to 23,000 pennies, or $230.”

Guiding Eyes Representative Nina Kellogg told the children about a guide dog in Chicago whose name is Primrose, and read a children’s book about a guide dog, “Rugby and Rosie” by Nan Parson Rossiter. 

Becky Barnes demonstrated how she holds the harness when she and Lawson go for a walk.

“He can see things I can’t, like the curbs and the traffic,” Barnes said. “When I’m walking with Lawson I feel safe.” 

Barnes then sang a song about a guide dog by children’s composer Sally Rogers. “I’m working whenever my harness is on. I do my duty with all my might,” sings the dog. The children chimed in, “I could have been a hunter, a sniffer or a runner but this job seems just right.”

“Saving the pennies teaches the children sharing and caring and giving to others. It also teaches them counting and adding,” French said. 

Becky Barnes told the kids that the pennies they collected “will make someone’s life better. You are awesome.”

 

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