Centennial family sells garden boxes to support school therapy dogs

BY TAYLER SHAW TSHAW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

After surviving a school shooting, three brothers in Centennial are working together to donate money to help support the Arapahoe County Sheri ’s O ce school therapy dogs and the agency’s e orts to keep students safe.

“It’s been really cool to have my kids be able to nd something that they have a connection to, that they can give back to,” said Bambi Watson, the mom of the three boys.

Her sons — Bannon, Brycen and BG — build and sell garden boxes through Facebook Marketplace. For each box sold, they donate $5 to Back the Blue K-9 Force, a nonpro t that helps fund school therapy dogs and law enforcement K-9 units.

e idea originated when Watson saw a Facebook post from Back the Blue K-9 Force asking for money to help support Rex, the Arapahoe County Sheri ’s O ce rst-ever school therapy dog who serves in Littleton Public Schools.

e Watson family knew Rex, as they had met him and Deputy John Gray, a school resource o cer and the K-9 handler of Rex, during a school fun run.

“ ey like to give back to things that mean something to them and that they have a connection to, so as soon as they found out this (was) to Rex, it was just an immediate connection with my kids,” Watson said.

Having school therapy dogs like Rex, a certi ed therapy dog who is also trained in detecting rearms, is “the perfect way to get guns out of school, nd guns in schools, keep our kids safe (and) keep our kids happy,” she said.

“My goal in donating is, I don’t ever want my kids to go to a school again where there is a school shooting. And I can’t think of a better way to make sure it doesn’t happen,” she added.

Reflecting on the STEM school shooting

On May 7, 2019, Watson’s three children were at STEM School Highlands Ranch when two people opened re, killing one student and injuring eight others.

Watson re ected on how intense and chaotic the shooting was for her and her children, who were in kindergarten, second grade and third grade at the time.

It was the last day her sons went to school there. e family moved out of the state shortly afterwards, and Watson said she did not plan on coming back to Colorado.

Prior to the school shooting, Watson had tried to get a school resource o cer at STEM School Highlands Ranch, she said.

As previously reported by Colorado Community Media, the school did not have a school resource ofcer when the shooting happened. Rather, it contracted with a private security rm that employs men and women with military backgrounds as guards.

“I was so angry that I couldn’t process anything, and I just wanted to get out of Colorado,” Watson said.

After leaving Colorado, the Watson family traveled across the country, which was amazing, she said.

“And then my husband’s boss asked if he could move back,” she said. “And so we did, and we really struggled with — where would they go to school where they will be safe?”

In December 2019, the family returned to Colorado and now lives in a Centennial neighborhood near Heritage High School.

At the time, Watson was angry about moving back. Meeting Rex and learning about his role, however, helped bring her comfort.

“Getting to know Rex and seeing that there are changes being made, it’s really helped me to pocket that anger and to actually want to be part of it,” Watson said. “ ere’s trust now with me. ere’s, like, a feeling of comfort letting my kids go to school.”

Gray: ‘It’s a huge help’

When Deputy Gray found out that the Watson family was donating money to help support the Arapahoe County Sheri ’s O ce school therapy dog program, he said it was incredible to see.

“I think it validates the point of our program, right? Because our pur- pose in this program was to do just that … to make kids feel safe and to be able to build relationships with kids,” Gray said. e sheri ’s o ce has ve school therapy dogs so far: Rex and Zeke in Littleton Public Schools; Riley and Bear in Cherry Creek Schools; and Otis in Byers and Deer Trail schools.

“I’m unaware of any agency in the state that has dogs designated to working only in schools that are both certi ed therapy dogs and can also provide school safety,” Gray said.

Rex, for example, is getting trained to search for guns and explosives, and Zeke is trained in detecting electronics such as storage devices, hard drives and ash drives, he said.

“It’s kind of cool that in two years we’ve gone from … one dog to ve dogs. And you know, currently we’re working on training our third dog in his dual purpose which is to, again, nd guns — and that’s Riley,” Gray said. “We’re not looking to get kids in trouble; we’re just looking to keep kids safe and provide them support.”

So far, the Watson family has donated more than $840. e money will help the sheri ’s o ce get all the materials it needs to train Rex, Gray said.

“It’s a huge help,” he said. “Because otherwise, you know, that leads to us having to go try to nd ways to fundraise to get the materials that we need.”

One of the assets of having a dog trained in detecting explosives in the schools is that it allows the agency to investigate bomb threats more quickly, he explained.

“It could take hours … if you had to call in another agency’s dog and wait, right? But now we have dogs working during the day in our own schools that could go clear a school in 20 minutes and have kids back safely in class, which is huge,” he said.

When it comes to making schools safer, Gray said the agency’s school therapy dog program is one of the solutions.

“Is it a perfect one? Nothing’s perfect. But when you start stacking these things together and we layer solutions, that’s when we get results,” Gray said. “You have an SRO in the building that’s trained in how to respond to stu , you have a dog that can nd guns, you have — you’re building relationships with kids and helping mental health.”

Re ecting on the impact of the Watson family’s donations, Gray said, “What they’re doing is bigger than just Rex.”

“And that’s what I think is important,” he said. “Yes, they’re raising money for those training supplies — but the idea behind it is bigger than that.”

Gardening for a purpose

Watson has always gardened, she said, and after moving into their Centennial home, the family started building garden boxes.

Her sons then had the idea to put the garden boxes on Facebook Marketplace to see if they could earn some money from selling the boxes.

“We kind of all do it together,” Watson said about creating the garden boxes. “ e only two things that they (her sons) need help with are cutting the wood and moving the wood, but they build the rest of it themselves.”

In April of last year, so many orders came in that the family was making 100 boxes a week, Watson said. is year is the rst time the family is directly donating part of the money earned from selling the garden boxes, though the family has given boxes for free to rst responders and members of the military in the past. Watson’s son, Bannon, said one of his favorite parts of the process is getting to see everyone who comes to get a garden box.

“We work really hard on these boxes,” Bannon said. ose interested in purchasing a garden box can nd more information at bit.ly/gardenbox23 or bit.ly/ gardenboxfb.