McDonald’s was the scene for a cheque presentation Thursday afternoon.
The local McDonald’s restaurant made a donation of $4,000 towards the Lions Foundation of Canada dog guide program.
The money will go towards sponsoring a diabetic dog guide, which is specially trained to detect sudden drops in sugar levels in people who are diabetic.
The cheque was presented by Sharon and Dave Taylor, owner-operators of McDonald’s in North Battleford. Ernie and Shirley Callow are also donating $4,000 as a matching donation.
“The great thing about this diabetic dog here today is it will be back here in Saskatchewan,” said Callow.
For Callow, it was an opportunity to educate people about dog guides through the donation. Callow has run into difficulties because people simply didn’t understand what a dog guide does.
Dog guides act as eyes and ears for people. While most people are familiar with dog guides used to help the blind, they can be trained to help those with other disabilities such as hearing loss.
Callow is deaf in one ear and partially deaf in another, so he uses a hearing dog guide named Lyra, who is trained to alert him to various situations, such as when a doorbell is ringing or a smoke-detector is going off.
Clients are able to use the dog guides in their everyday lives including visits to restaurants and when out shopping or doing business.
There are six different dog guide programs offered by the Lions Foundation — vision, hearing, autism, service, seizure response and diabetic.
He said Sharon Taylor came on board immediately with a donation towards the diabetic dog guide. It was a cause close to her own heart because she is a diabetic herself.
“I’m extremely proud to be partnering with Ernie and his wife,” Taylor said, adding “the biggest thing is awareness.”
