The Gallatin Lions Club recently sponsored Darrell Purdue, who resides in southern Daviess County, for a Leader Dog.
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Darrell attended a 26-day training session in Rochester, Mich., with his new Leader Dog, Zilo.
During a November Lions Club meeting, Darrell gave a presentation on his trip and stressed his thankfulness for the support that the Lions organization gives to the Leader Dogs for the blind program. One of the interesting facts that Darrell provided was that besides receiving donated dogs, the school has a sophisticated breeding program and volunteers throughout the country house the leader dogs as pets for approximately one year before training.
Darrell explained that his dog was named Zilo by a volunteer whom had named each dog after a letter in the alphabet, which meant she had been a host for 26 Leader Dogs.
Lions are one of the major financial supporters for this program that has trained over 13,000 Leader Dogs since it was founded in 1939. The school graduates hundreds of student and dog teams each year, striving to minimize the challenges of blindness by providing safe and independent travel.