Waco ISD Facility Dog Fundraising

In the spring of 2022, the campus principals within Waco Independent School District had the opportunity to meet Amanda Davis, President of Bella’s Buddies, Inc., to learn about the work that this organization is doing in schools to address the needs of emotional support through the use of facility dogs. Several principals from around the state who already have facility dogs in their schools joined Amanda during this meeting to share the positive impact these dogs can make in schools.

University High School began working with Amanda and her organization following that meeting to have a dog placed in our school beginning in the 2022-2023 school year. We have learned in our schools that we are still working to recover from the pandemic. As a result, we have more mental health needs for students and staff in our building than ever before. The day the UHS team met Amanda and her team, she brought three dogs to our school to visit. As we walked the halls, allowing students and staff to interact with these dogs, we could tell a facility dog would make a huge difference at our campus. Within a few weeks, we settled on having Bear as our dog beginning the 2022-2023 school year.

Since Bear joined the UHS family, our Greater Waco Advanced Health Care Academy (GWAHCA) also added a facility dog named Major. Our goals for having Bear and Major align to the goals of Bella’s Buddies, which include: responding to crisis situations, providing the love and support a dog can give, teaching young people how to have difficult conversations, learning conflict resolution skills, decreasing discipline referrals, increasing student achievement, and empowering relationships between students, staff and our sweet dogs, Bear and Major. These dogs have served their respective campuses, but they have also made a huge impact on other campuses and in the community through being present in several situations this past school year when there was a crisis.

We are fundraising for our facility dogs for training, food, and veterinary costs for our facility dogs. We also desire to fundraise to pay it forward to the Bella’s Buddies organization for providing these two amazing dogs to our school district. University High School and GWAHCA would be grateful for any support provided as we continue our journey with these dogs who are making a tremendously positive impact in our schools. Below are various donation options we are seeking:

• Donate $500 add your logo to one of our facility dog’s vests

• Donate $1500 and add your logo to both of our facility dog’s vests

• Donate $2500 and add your logo to both our facility dog’s vests and name a future facility dog

We are very excited to continue this journey with Bella’s Buddies to see the lasting impact this will have on our staff, students, and overall culture of our school.

Please contact beth.braham@wacoisd.org or call 254-366-2125 for more information. Thank you for your consideration!