Krissie Essilfie ’21
Avani Narula ’21: 
Yogi, Episcopal Academy’s seeing eye dog in training, has left the community to serve the blind. Yogi and Upper School Form V Dean and math teacher, Cheryl McLauchlan, are part of The Seeing Eye, an organization that prepares young puppies to help blind or vision-impaired citizens with everyday activities. As a volunteer puppy-raiser for the Seeing Eye dog program, McLauchlan takes care of the dogs like Yogi for a period of 15 months until they are old enough to undergo the training to become full-fledged service dogs.
McLauchlan wasn’t the first Episcopal Academy faculty member to work with the Seeing Eye program. Susan Swanson, former Director of Community Service at Episcopal, was the first to bring the Seeing Eye program to Episcopal by bringing several dogs to school and letting the students interact and play with them. McLauchlan was inspired, and began helping Swanson take care of the puppies. Eventually, she started fostering her own dogs as well.
As a puppy raiser, McLauchlan takes these puppies anywhere and everywhere. “Every month we go on different outings with the puppy so they can be exposed to a variety of different environments,” said McLachlan. “The dogs that come here are very lucky. My dogs go to chapel, concerts, basketball games, and more. They are exposed to a tremendous amount of situations and scenarios.”
Yogi has impacted many students throughout the school. “It softens the edges,” McLauchlan explains. “Little kids would be so excited to see the dog, and during exams kids would just come in and pet the dog. It adds a nice humanizing touch to school.” The effect of Yogi and other dogs before him can be seen through the students’ love and appreciation for them. Scottie Crockett ‘19 says, “Having a dog is nice because we all have a common pet as a grade. It makes our lounge much more welcoming and fun.” She notes that without the dog, the grade feels a little dull, and is earnestly looking forward to receiving a new puppy as soon as possible.
Taking care of a seeing eye puppy has taught McLauchlan several important life lessons. “I realized that things that I thought were important are not that important. When they (the dogs) graduate, you realize how unbelievably important that dog is for the independence of the person who receives them.” It was hardto let the puppy go after bonding with them for such a significant amount of time. However, as McLauchlan puts it, “When you see the difference that that dog makes in someone’s life, it’s worth all the work.”
Recognizing the huge difference it makes for the community, the students, the future blind owner, and her own life, McLauchlan has already signed up for her next seeing eye puppy, which should be arriving in January.