What is bullying?

Webster’s Dictionary defines bullying as “to overawe by threats and taunts” “to treat with persistent petty cruelty; to domineer over; to coerce” and a bully as “a cruel
and boastful oppressor of the weak”.

Bullying.gov states bullying involves:

• Imbalance of power
• Intent to cause harm
• Repetition

Spreading rumors, name-calling, excluding others, and embarrassing them are all forms of social bullying that can cause serious and
lasting harm.

One psychologist says on his website that bullying is a normal social interaction that happens in every relationship. However, he limits the definition of bullying to teasing and the kinds of things we think of as social dominance. While bullying may be common, it is not normal and you don’t have to accept it.

There is No One I Can Talk To…

If for any reason, you don’t feel you can talk to your parents or a teacher or a coach or a member of the clergy there is a number you
can call. It is 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255) it is available 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week and these are people trained to help you through this.

Bullying Victims’ Perspective*

(*names have been changed)

Guilt by Association

At thirteen, growing up in a small rural community, Sophie’s rebel sister cut a wide swath through the community. While the two sisters were very different, it still gave Sophie’s classmates a reason to single her out and torment her. Each day at lunch, she sat alone. During the meal period a folded piece of paper would land in her food, amid giggles, hoots and laughter. It would start with “Sophie is:” and then list awful names, swears and cruel comments about her looks, hygiene, intelligence and social skills. When she took the note to her parents they told her she would have to learn to deal with this kind of thing and in future to throw the paper away quickly so a teacher wouldn’t accuse her of writing it. Throwing the note away and ignoring the actions did not help. Another note appeared at every lunch period for most of the school year. When she mentioned it to a teacher, he asked what she had done to earn that treatment. Her protests were silenced with examples from her sister’s activities; if she was a trouble-maker Sophie had to be, too. If it hadn’t been for her dogs, she might have gone through with her thoughts of suicide. She felt like the biggest dork in the world and she was sure she was the ugliest girl in class. It was a truly miserable year that did not end until she convinced her parents she could improve her chances for a scholarship if she changed schools. At the new school she had the fourth highest class average, was a cheerleader, and played in band, and on the girls’ soccer team.

Big Ears and Clumsy Feet

A good friend and someone I highly respect sent me a Facebook message when I asked people to define bullying. He was teased for his big ears, thick glasses, and tall, gangly form. Classmates lay in wait for him every day after school to beat him up. He ran as fast as he could to avoid them and the trouble didn’t stop until he told his parents and they enrolled him in a different school. He was lonely, scared and despised himself because he had big ears, thick glasses and was tall and uncoordinated. His only solace was in books. During that year he hid in his room and read, and read, and read. It made him an outstanding student and led to scholarships and a professional degree his parents never could have afforded. He has made it his mission as an adult to identify kids he thinks are being bullied and help them through the situation.

You Don’t Dictate My Friends

John was in second grade. He and Tommy and a couple of other boys spent every recess playing “horse” until Andy got involved. Andy told all the boys they had to stop being Tommy’s friend or he would make sure they had no friends at all. John was only eight but he didn’t like being told who he could and couldn’t be friends with. John and Tommy continued to play horse together, just the two of them, and true to his word Andy made sure no other boy would participate. But that wasn’t enough for Andy. One day he stole the ball. John ignored the taunts and started to walk away. Andy ran up behind him and threw an arm around John’s neck. John had been taught self-defense. A few well placed elbows and Andy landed on his rear-end in front of his buddies that he was trying to impress. The teachers rushed over and when the dustsettled Andy ended up in a lot of trouble. John and Tommy remained friends. Even after they went to college, each could call the other and get help on a moment’s notice.

Un-friending the Former BFF

The BFF that wasn't

Mary wanted to be popular. She got involved in activities and started hanging out with some kids who seemed to be having a lot of fun. The norm of the group was to sleep around. Afterwards Mary felt pretty bad about herself and changed how she acted and who she hung out with, but the damage was done and a lot of her old friends avoided her. To make matters worse, Jen, her BFF from last year, stood in judgment of Mary and posted horrible things, mostly exaggerations, on Facebook about Mary. Mary’s mother tried to talk to Jen’s mother. Instead of helping, Jen’s mother exaggerated things even more and spread the word to all the parents of Mary’s friends. Mary and Mary’s mother un-friended Jen, Jen’s mother and anyone who helped grow the rumors. They posted daily things that Mary was doing that were positive. It took a while but Jen changed schools and Mary is carefully building a new group of friends. When asked about the old postings, she tells the new friends, “I made some mistakes but don’t believe everything you read posted about me on Facebook.” She said it is a great way to sort out who will be a real friend and who will run away when you need them the most.

Bullying has been Around a Long Time

Sophie and Joe’s stories happened over 40 years ago so bullying has been around for a very long time, but it doesn’t make it right or fun or something to accept. Sophie, Joe, John and Tommy ended up being better, stronger people after living through the bullying experience, but none of them had fun at the time, all of them considered suicide, and all of them believed they were second class citizens. In each case, the problem didn’t solve itself. It took adult intervention to make it go away.

What Happens to Bullying Victims?

The danger in bullying is the victim usually takes one of three paths – self-destruction or revenge or endurance. The first two are not the solution.

Self-destruction

Hurting yourself isn’t the answer; how does that hurt the bully? It doesn’t. If someone is so self-absorbed as to get pleasure out of tormenting you, chances are they will feel more powerful and be even more abusive to the next victim if they drive you over the edge. If you won’t hang in there for yourself, then do it to protect the next person from the bully. This will end.

 If they post nastiness on your Facebook page, start a list of things your family, friends, teammates have said you are good at, even if you don’t believe they are true. You don’t have to post it, just un-friend the person posting the mean comments. If they post to a friend’s page message the friend you are un-friending them because they let the bully say bad things about you not because you dislike them. Then do it. Better to have two good friends than 500 people tearing you down. Can’t think of anything good about yourself? Look into your pet’s eyes and know you are loved and needed just as you are. Talk to someone. If you can’t talk to your friends or parents or teachers or coaches or clergy try this number 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255).

Revenge

Revenge doesn’t pay and usually backfires. You think bullying is bad in school, what do you think it will be like in prison? Take matters into your own hands and go after the bully and if you are lucky, you will end up in a jail cell; if not you can end up dead and that is not an improvement.

Aggressive physical behavior on your part makes the bully a hero and you a pitiful weakling without the brains to get help. Is that how you want the world to think of you for the next 60 years? Think about it. You are planning violence because a jackass is making fun of you in front of maybe 30 cowardly kids, who in a couple of weeks they won’t even remember the incident. If you react violently, millions of people will remember you as evil for the rest of their lives.

You have a choice; learn from others’ cruelty what not to do or become a permanent victim without ever knowing all the joy the future can bring. What are your dreams? Hang onto them and work to make them happen.

If it is becoming too much you need to talk to an adult. If you don’t have anyone to talk to call 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255).

Endurance

All of the people in the examples above followed the path of endurance. They avoided the bully as much as possible and focused on the future. Yes they were still picked on. Yes they had to get help to resolve the situation. Yes they were better people for having faced the adversity and survived. That is key, survive, don’t give up or turn bitter.

What to Do About a Bully

A search of the web provides several websites giving teens direction on how to handle being bullied. Some of the recommendations are similar, some of them are different. Look at them and see which advice best fits you. No two people are alike so no one system works perfectly for everyone. If they did there would be only one website and way of handling things. Here are two that seem to make sense but they may or may not be the answer for your situation.

 www.stopbullyingnow.com gives this advice:

1. Don’t act like a victim – The bully is trying to get an emotional response; an angry outburst, crying, responding in kind. It is really hard to do but if you can pretend you are not upset, it is better than reacting. It may or may not make the bully
   go away, but if you show emotion the bully will want to keep hassling you. Sophie and Joe let the bullies know they were upset and hurt so the bullying continued.
2. Get support – Friends, teachers, coaches, parents; any of them may be able to help you. You are not at fault. You are not to blame. If someone doesn’t listen, go to the next person. Sophie stopped asking for help and endured until she could get her parents to let her switch schools. Joe’s parents stepped in to help. Once the teachers found out what Andy was doing everything changed for Tommy and John. You are not a crybaby if you ask for help.
3. 

   Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. A. Einstein

   Think about what happened differently; you are not to blame- You didn’t ask for this. Being shy or wearing glasses or having big ears or making mistakes does not mean others have a right to bully you. Every single person has their quirks; it doesn’t make them bad or give permission to others to ridicule them.

   Joe’s ears really aren’t abnormal. Sophie wasn’t any different than her classmates. Mary made mistakes, but that is part of growing up and everyone has something embarrassing they have done and wish they could forget. Whatever the bully says about you, stop and remember you are not that different from all your classmates. The bully is wrong.

4. Don’t lose hope – Always remember you are of value. There is only one of you and you are irreplaceable. School is a weird place, you are thrown in with people you have nothing in common with and if given a choice, you wouldn’t be friends with in a million years. This will pass. You will graduate and this will be behind you. Set a goal and focus on getting there. When you feel worthless, and you will, list all the progress you have made toward that goal. Sophie’s work with her dogs during that time of being bullied helped her to become a nationally known expert on canines. Joe is a highly paid professional who focuses on preventing other people from being bullied. John and Tommy are successful college students with some really pretty girlfriends and lots of good friends. Mary is in the process of finding the right circle of friends and trying to forgive Jen.
5. Find things you love to do and people you love to do those things with – Sophie trained dogs. Joe learned to camp and be an outdoorsman. Tommy became a computer whiz and John joined  gymnastics and lacrosse teams. In “Dangerous Turn Ahead” Gabe joins a canine search and rescue team. At first he isn’t sure about the people in the group; I mean, a bald hairdresser? As he gets to know the team and realizes he makes a difference, the world doesn’t seem so bad. Ever got involved in Ham radios? Ever tried bird watching and reporting? How about Scouting? The point is, when you have good stuff happening, it is easier to ignore the bad stuff. You have the power to make the good stuff happen if you turn your energy to that instead of thinking about the hurts.
6. 

   Teaching a child to swim

   Find a way to make other people’s lives better – When you help someone else, you feel warm inside and you KNOW you made a difference. Having big ears or wearing glasses isn’t that big a deal when you see the relief on an elderly person’s face, turn a scared little kid’s tears to smiles, or help an animal. Can you shovel an elderly neighbor’sdriveway or mow their lawn without charging them? Can you volunteer at Big Brother/Big Sister? Can you help at a no kill animal shelter? There are thousands of ways and places to volunteer. Find one and know you make a difference.

7. Get help – When you can’t take the punishment anymore, ask for help. Before you hurt yourself or someone else, talk to someone. A member of the clergy, a counselor at school, your family doctor. Talk to someone you trust and who has the experience to see the big picture and help you see it, too. Here is a number to call if you can’t find anyone else to trust 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255).

www.webmd.com/parenting/tc/bullying-topic-overview gives slightly different advice. Here are their recommendations:

1. Talk back- You don’t have to accept bullying and wait and hope it will stop. If you feel safe, then calmly tell the bully to stop. It is really hard to do without sounding emotional and being emotional prompts the bully to keep picking on you. Plan what you are going to say ahead of the next bullying session and here is a trick. Say it without using the words “you” or “I” and give the bully a reason to stop. So instead of saying “What you are doingis wrong!” or “Leave me alone.” Try, “Mocking people for big ears is socially unacceptable, please stop or we will need to discuss this with the principal”. Think about what is in it for the bully. Right now he is popular because he can make people laugh at you and they don’t want him making people laugh at them. You need to give the bully a reason to stop. In “Dangerous Turn Ahead” Gabe handles this incorrectly. If you happen to read it, think about what he could have done differently to get a better result.
2. Walk away – It doesn’t make you a coward to avoid conflict situations. Joe ran home every day after school to avoid being beaten up. Sophie tried to sit alone at lunch. Tommy and John played by themselves off to one side of the playground. That isn’t being a coward, it is being smart. In “Dangerous Turn Ahead”,Gabe realizes the bully likes to wait for him to finish buying lunch and then deliberately spills Gabe’s tray. Gabe starts to brown bag lunch and the bully transfers his attention to someone else and leaves Gabe in peace. It sometimes takes more bravery to walk away than to get into a fight.
3. Tell an adult – You are not a “crybaby”. You are taking the situation to the proper authorities for them to handle. Face it, the administrators,teachers, and coaches at school are being paid to keep you safe and handle bullies as well as teach classes. Telling an adult simply makes it easier for them to do their job. Tommy and John never said anything until the problem became physical, that was a big risk. In “Dangerous Turn Ahead”, Gabe is almost stabbed because he doesn’t say anything to his parents about being bullied. Be smart, tell an adult.

Bullying Doesn’t Last Forever

This will pass. It is no fun and makes you feel horrible, but it will pass. It is okay to ask for help, especially if things are getting physical. The bully is one person or a small-minded group.  Stay safe and ask for help. You are worth it.

Crazy Conditions

Bill with Koda, Sherri with Belle, Susan with Gryphon, Shane with Rosie

It is 19 degrees Fahrenheit, a cold wind is blowing out of
the north at 7-10 mph, and you are excited to be out in it. You aren’t just out
in it, you will be sitting still for 30 minutes or more, waiting to reward a
dog for finding you. If that sounds like a lot of fun then you might just fit
in with German Shepherd Search and Rescue Dog Association (GSSARDA) as they
train.

January Training

Thanks to Tops Kennel, GSSARDA was able to use facilities generally
reserved for S.W.A.T. and canine officers. It was a collection of abandoned
barns, industrial buildings, and office spaces. There were also some junk cars
used to train police canines for vehicles searches.

Team Members Participating

For the first time since the evaluation all operational dogs
and handlers were able to attend the same training so a few minutes was taken
to get some pictures. At 19 degrees the handlers were not about to sacrifice
warmth to look pretty so everyone is bundled up, but it was nice to finally get
a picture of the group.

Susan and Gryphon

Susan watches while Amanda gives Gryphon his play reward for finding her and alerting.

Susan and Gryphon led the way as the tested type 1 USAR dog
on the team. Gryphon was awesome, swiftly spotting and alerting to a subject
hidden on a vehicle’s roof. He then raced through the office building finding subjects
hidden in a shower. Gryphon took full advantage of S.W.A.T’s activities to
crash open a door that was breached in a training exercise. Gryph gave an
excellent alert. He ended the day in a barn stacked to the rafters with bales
of hay, scrambling up 20 feet into the air to alert close to the subject.

Bill and Koda

Koda alerts to a subject on top of a van while Bill looks on

Koda followed Gryphon with her first opportunity to do a
building search. She was completely un-fazed when her first subject hid on top
of a van. A few minutes later she alerted to a subject in a closet. She quickly
found the shower subject and made swift work of finding a subject hidden on the
roof of one of the buildings. It may have been her first building search but
she handled it like a pro.

Shane and Rosie

Susan gives Rosie her play reward after being found hiding in the bed of a pickup truck

By the time it was Rosie’s turn she was dancing with excitement.
She raced laps checking empty barns as her handler gathered his pack and radio.
She quickly spotted subjects in vans and pickup trucks and gave a decent alert.
The subject in the show was quickly found and then she went out and found
another subject hidden on an ice machine in an abandoned concession area. She
bounced up the bails of hay to land on her last subject for the day.

Rosie and Shane head for the next search in an old concession stand

Sherri and Belle

Belle locates her subject and alerts

In true Belle fashion she methodically searched each
building quickly finding and alerting to the subjects in the vehicles. When let
out to find the next subject, she tracked him through the snow and into her
second building. The shower subject finally got a break when Belle alerted to
his position. Hiding under counters and behind doors were no problem for Belle
and she scaled a second stack of hay, even jumping from a wobbling bale to gain
a higher position and finally locate her last subject.

Lots of Fun

Judging from the smiles on the handlers and the relaxed
dogs, everyone had a lot of fun and would be more than happy to go again.

Belle comes to a sit prior to demonstrating heeling, stays and emergency stop

On Tuesday, January 10, 2012 Mrs. Oshinski, 7th grade
science teacher invited Sherri and Belle from German Shepherd Search and Rescue
Dog Association to come in and talk about canine search and rescue. The class
had just finished a section on forensics.

Sherri presented the who, what, where, why and how of canine
search and rescue and demonstrated  some
of the obedience requirements with Belle and why they are important. She
included stories from some searches the team had taken.

The students asked some excellent questions and at the end,
those that wanted to, spent time petting Belle. Sherri passed out trading cards
for Belle and bookmarks for the teen novel “Dangerous Turn Ahead”.

Sherri answers questions from Highland 7th graders

A Carson's customer pets Rosie

Carson Pirie Scott and all the Bonton stores host
“Community Days”. They invite not-for-profit organizations to give
away coupon books for a $5 donation. The not-for-profit keeps all of the money.
The donor gets a coupon worth $10 off anything in the store and several coupons
for 20% off many other items.

Community Days Donations Covers Insurance

German Shepherd Search and Rescue Dog Association has
participated for the last 3 years. The Carson Pirie Scott store in the Streets
of Woodfield shopping center has allowed us to bring in the dogs and interact
with the customers as they come in to shop. The dogs love it and thanks to
Carson’s GSSARDA has been able to fund our insurance so we can train.

Future Community Days

The next Community Days is in April 27th and 28th. If you
are interested in receiving a coupon for a $5 donation, please feel free to
contact us at technacon1986@sbcglobal.net or come visit us at Carson’s from noon
until 2 PM  on Saturdays from March 17
through April 21st.

Evaluation 2011

On November 19th the testing started. Originally the
evaluations were to be in September but getting outside evaluators turned into
a serious problem and delayed testing for two months. The original test was to
be to Search and Rescue Dogs US (SARDUS) standards, however, when it became
clear evaluators were not going to be available, the switch was made to
American Rescue Dog Association  (ARDA)
standards. Dogs and handlers were tested on trail hasties, dense brush, open
field and night searches.

Eventually, Tom Couch of N.C. C.E.R.T. and Sherri Gallagher
performed the evaluations with Tom acting as lead evaluator since Sherri was a
member of GSSARDA.

Both handlers had already passed the field navigation
testing in the Spring but the evaluators were not about to let them off that
easily. Throughout the problems they had to demonstrate to the evaluators their
location on the topographical map. Both did an excellent job.

The Set Up

A forest preserve in Lake County was used for the testing as
well as private property for the night test. While both handlers had searched
in the area before, subjects were placed in a section that had not been used
for training due to coyote activity.

The team owes a big thanks to Troop 198 out of St. Andrews
in Mundelein for providing subjects the dogs had never met. The scouts arrived
at sunrise and were placed by the evaluators an hour before the first dog and
handler. They stayed in place for the next 6 hours in 40 degree temps, a cold wind
and overcast skies.

Order of Testing

Koda

Both successfully found the trail hasty subjects. Dogs and
handlers were not given a break but directed to immediately begin the sector
searching starting with dense brush. Both dogs crashed merrily through thorns
and brambles to locate the next set of subjects.

Having finished the daytime testing, everyone took a break
for supper, although Bill and Shane didn’t seem to eat much. As darkness fell,
cloud cover took over and the threat of rain became spats of drops. Evaluators
placed subjects for the night problems and both dogs did an excellent job of
finding the subject and alerting. The last dog and handler finished just as a
downpour began.

Results

It was a very long day. Congratulations to Bill and Koda and
Shane and Rosie operational wilderness search and rescue dogs.

Rosie alerts

Susan rewards Gryphon

Susan and No Nonsense Gryphon had a busy year racking up his
Begleitenhund title, his IRO Rubble A title, and his NIMS  Type 1 USAR certification through IPWDA.

First the Begleitenhund

Gryphon, handled by a nervous Susan earned his Begleitenhund title on June 17, 2011 at the mid-Ohio Schutzhund Club. Weather conditions were not ideal – it was pouring rain. Past experience had not been kind to Susan. The last time She had handled a dog for the BH, was several years earlier at a different club, with her young Doberman. That had been her first schutzhund trial and her dog was on the long down. The working canine ran to her dog, bothering it and tried to chase it off the field. After that experience Susan was not comfortable but knew the team requirements and gamely took the field with her German Shepherd partner. No Nonsense Gryphon, ignored his handler’s jitters and turned in a splendid performance under judge Frank
Phillips, demonstrating he had been well named.

Gryphon waits for the next command

Second IRO Rubble A

Two months later, on August 20, 2011, Susan and Gryphon travelled to Virginia. While the weather was dry, the temperatures soared to 95 degrees. Once again Gryphon proved his endurance and abilities earning the title IRO Rubble A under judge Resi Geritson.

Third NIMS Type 1 USAR

Finally on October 11, 2011 Susan and Gryphon got perfect weather to test. The International Police Work Dog Association(IPWDA) tested dogs and handlers to the National Incident Management System (NIMS) Type 1 Urban Search And Rescue (USAR) standard in Indiana. Gryphon demonstrated all the hard work and consistent training Susan had given him was justified and walked away with his Type 1 certification.

We can’t wait to see what these two will do in 2012.

The requirements:

The obedience was a modified Begleitenhund routine combine
with a four scenario protection routine. Judging criteria had the same
expectations as schutzhund – control, energy, intensity, precision, grips.

The judges:

Frank Ethrige, a long-time handler under Mike Charatin; Rich
Kuatick, a retired police K9 handler and trainer; and Tommy Martin, multiple
schutzhund 3 club member, national competitor from the Greater Chicago
Schutzhund Club applied their time, talent and expertise as judges for the
event.

The result:

Liz and Gatlin took first place in the advanced obedience
and won the overall cup. They must return next year to defend their title.

The clean team before the race

What do you get when you put a search and rescue team
together with 3.08 miles of mud pits, cargo nets, flames and a bunch of other
obstacles? Lots of fun, funds and team building.

It all started when Liz asked about the 3 mile in 30 minute run handlers must do to qualify. She asked if she could do the Warrior Dash instead. Shane took one look at the website and made the same request. Not to be out done Bill, Amanda, Mike and Sherri all decided they were up for the challenge. That is when the idea came to run the Warrior Dash as a fund-raiser, much like a walk-a-thon. Team member went out asking for sponsors and the support was tremendous. Altogether, $562 was pledged, much of it paid in advance of the race.

Team members hurried to sign up. Unfortunately, the roster filled before Bill and Amanda could register. Still being team players they
helped with the fund-raising and on the day of the race arrived to hold wallets and cheer on the runners.

Shane swam the mud pit

The question remained; was possible for a team member to run the 5K distance and complete all the obstacles in 30 minutes. Shane, a 5K
veteran, volunteered to find out and took off from the start at a good clip. He had been psyched to conquer the mud pit and did some decorative shaving and dying of his hair so we could find him at the finish. It was the last obstacle and he dove in to swim it with a determined crawl stroke and finishing the race in 28 minutes.

Liz, Mike, and Brian had been training to run the distance but their previous experience had all been sprints. Sherri set out running at a 10 minute-mile speed so the others could get the feel for the pace. The team stayed together shouting encouragement to each other as they conquered the obstacles.

The not so clean runners

They jumped the flames together and even ended up on the Warrior Dash Facebook page, climbing out of the mud pit. They finished as a group in 41 minutes.

After the race the team was hosed down by friendly
firefighters with very cold water. After changing into dry clothes and shoes the members donated the shoes they ran in to be either given to people who needed shoes or recycled into playground mats,

and headed to the concession
stand. The food for the day was roasted turkey drumsticks.

Turkey drumsticks were the food for the day

It was a great team
building activity and everyone agreed to run it again next year.

GSSARDA members have been waiting on September for some time
now as we have multiple events and fundraisers taking place.  It is finally here, and the quickest way to
convey all this information is in a single post.

Join us on Facebook

GSSARDA has finally become a member of the Facebook
community with our own page!  It is
allowing us to provide you with many more updates on our activities and events,
and with plenty of media of our hard working and wonderful shepherds!  We are currently featuring a bio and pictures
of one of our search dogs a week so you can learn all about them.  Look forward to contests in the future as
well! ‘Like’ us on Facebook today!!!

http://www.facebook.com/GSSARDA

Warrior Dash

The Warrior Dash is coming up in less than a week, and our
members are already starting to sweat!
Not only is this going to be a great team building event, but it is a
fundraiser where you can hedge bets against our success and failure at the
course!  This is your last chance to get your
pledges in for our members.  For more
information on this event follow the link:

http://gssarda-il.org/featured/dash-for-cash-gssarda-to-run-the-warrior-dash.htm

Ruff N It

Come out and meet some of the GSSARDA dogs and team members
at this DuPage Forest Preserve event.  It
will be held at the Greene Valley Forest Preserve in Naperville on September 18^th,
2011. The event runs between 10am – 1pm

There will be multiple vendors and organizations present at
this event as well as multiple demonstrations from different groups.  The event is free and attendees are welcome
to bring their leashed pets!

We will have a few of our search and rescue dogs at this
event for small demonstrations.  For a
small donation you will even be able to get your picture taken in SAR gear with
a dog!

We will also be holding a raffle at our table during the
event.  We will have a basket full of
human spa goodies, and a basket for your doggie friends, as well as some
additional canine items.  Tickets for the
raffle will be for donations of:

$1 = 1 ticket

$5 = 6 tickets

$10 = 12 tickets

We will draw winners at 12:45pm – winners need not to be
present, we will contact you if you have won but are not present.

Team members and dogs will also be present at the Lake
Forest Open House on 9/18 as well.

And last but not least…

Vote for Gatlin

One of our SAR dogs in training – Gatlin – is in a contest
at a local TV station – WCIU!  If he wins
he receives a DVD of the entire filming session and is featured for another month
and on a list of Top Dogs!  Please help
us support our team member and vote for him every day throughout
September.  Share with your friends and
family so they can do the same!

http://www.wciu.com/udog.php?section=vote&assetID=10006454

We are collecting:

- Empty inkjet cartridges

- Empty laser cartridges

- Used cell phones

• Participating in our program helps protect the environment by keeping these recyclable items out of landfills and preserving our natural resources.
• All proceeds benefit the German Shepherd Search & Rescue Dog Association by funding training and search operations.
• Recycling takes 5 minutes or less and allows you to help at no extra cost.
• With your help we will be able to maintain highly trained and qualified volunteers and dogs to rescue lost persons.

How can you participate?

- Start saving your empty cartridges at home and return them to GSSARDA-IL member or a designated drop location (more coming soon – check back!)

- Spread the word to your family and friends to recycle too!

- Businesses can help too by getting a FREE affiliate account and sending in your recyclables to benefit GSSARDA-IL (contact us for more information)

Drop Box Locations:

Caribou Coffee

375 North Milwaukee

Vernon Hills, IL 60061

Or drop them off at one of the following events:

Ruff N It Day

September 18th 2011

10am – 1pm

Greene Valley Forest Preserve

Naperville, IL

Dont forget to also check out how to support us through the Warrior Dash fundraiser coming up on September 19th 2011

http://gssarda-il.org/featured/dash-for-cash-gssarda-to-run-the-warrior-dash.htm

How funds from recycling will be used:

It costs about $10,000 to transport, feed and house a team
for a week long search. Additionally the team must carry insurance to utilize
training locations. No one on the team receives a salary. All funds will be
applied to the cost of training, searches, and demonstrations to benefit the
community.

Any and all support is appreciated.