MEGAN BADGER / WIRE PHOTO
Aidan, a student at Maureen Welch Elementary in Richboro, spends time with Hannah, a registered therapy dog with Nor’wester Readers.
By Megan Badger
Wire Managing Editor
When Debbie Glessner retired from being a school librarian, she decided to adopt a puppy.
She never thought her new companion would lead her on a path that would allow her to continue to touch the lives of children.
Glessner is the co-founder of Nor’wester Readers, a learning program that places therapy dogs in classrooms to aid students.
Glessner and her partner, Wendi Huttner, started the organization several years ago with Huttner’s dog, Nor’wester, or Wes, in one school district. It has since grown to include more than 40 therapy dog teams working with students in four area school districts and two private schools.
“It started off in 2007 with me and Wes. We were the first team,” Huttner said. “Debbie had a puppy in training, Hannah, but she was still too young to be certified.”
Since then Hannah, who is Wes’s pup, has grown and become a registered therapy dog. Glessner accompanies her to all her classes.
The dogs work with individual children in each classroom they visit and often serve as a non-judgmental listener for struggling readers. The teachers may choose students who struggle academically or socially to spend time with the dog during visits. Some also use the therapy dog session as a reward for a student’s good behavior.
The result, Huttner said, is children who develop a love of learning. Each day she spends in the classroom she sees students reading at higher grade-levels, self-correcting themselves when reading and generally becoming more confident.
The nonprofit organization relies on a large team of trained volunteers and therapy dogs. Each dog in the program is required to have both its Canine Good Citizen title and its therapy dog certification. In addition, each volunteer has to be tested with each dog he or she works with in the classroom.
“I was a stay-at-home mother and I have a partner who was an educator, and together we started this reading program. We didn’t know it was going to be an organization,” Huttner said. “I was a breeder and had read articles about these dogs doing reading work, and that’s where our name came from. But we’re not just a reading organization anymore, we’re a true learning organization.”
Glessner and Huttner started the program at Council Rock School District, where Glessner worked as a librarian for many years and where Hunter sent her children. From there, the program has expanded to neighboring schools of Bensalem Township, Pennsbury, New Hope- Solebury, The Center School in Abington and Olney High School in Philadelphia.
Glessner said that passionate and creative teachers are crucial to the program’s success.
Nor’wester Readers works closely with individual teachers to incorporate the program into the class’s weekly schedule. Each therapy team is partnered with a handful of classrooms, and the same dog returns each week, allowing the children to develop a relationship with the dog.
“One of the great things about Nor’wester readers is that Debbie and I take the time to do an orientation with each team when they come on board, and also with each teacher who comes on board,” Glessner explained. “We really try to emphasize to [the teachers] that here is something that will really enhance your educational environment. The smart teachers get it and they know that it takes a little bit of extra planning to figure out how to use this team to motivate the kids and challenge the kids and get them excited about learning.”
“From day one this has never been a show and tell program, or a way to give the teachers a 30 minute break,” Huttner added. “This has always enhanced the educational environment for these kids.”
When the program began, neither of them knew where it would lead. Now, the therapy teams work not only with students from first grade to 12th grade, but with special education classes, autistic support classes and life skills classes. The dogs have also provided comfort at a local candlelight vigil when grief counselors were unavailable.
The duo said working with local colleges may be their next task, as therapy dogs are often used as comfort dogs for stressed-out students during finals week.
“I don’t think too much of what we’ve done is new, but we’ve fine-tuned it,” Huttner said. “We didn’t come up with the idea of therapy dogs and dogs in schools, but we’re different from other organizations because of the balance between us.”
Between Huttner’s dog expertise and mothering instincts, and Glessner’s strong educational background, it seems the potential for the program’s growth is unlimited. However, both women agree that they could never give up the personal touch they bring to the program for the sake of expansion.
“It’s the two of us and we both meet every dog, meet every handler, meet every teacher, and I don’t know if we want to grow so big that we don’t do that,” Huttner said. “We realize that we’re hands on and we don’t want to give that up. By having control, it maintains safety and protects our name.
“We’re both passionate about what we do,” she added. “Neither of us want to do anything halfway.”
For more information about Nor’wester Readers, visit www.norwesterreaders.org or call Wendi Huttner at 215–504–0154.
