As many Tower students know, Mrs. Okroy, science teacher, is a huge advocate for helping out stray and abandoned dogs found on the streets of Detroit. In fact, for the last few years, she has been volunteering at the Detroit Dog Rescue Boarding Shelter almost every single day. Over this past weekend, Mrs. Okroy decided that she would give some of her students the opportunity to volunteer at one of the DDR’s annual charity events – the Canine and Couture Fundraiser held at The Townsend Hotel.
The fundraiser had about 170 attendees who all made donations to the DDR. Many of the dogs that come to the shelter need a lot of medical attention, so Mrs. Okroy was very pleased with the outcome of the event. “Some of the dogs at the show only had three legs, so it was great to raise enough money that would give them the help that they need,” Mrs. Okroy shared.
As for the student volunteers, Mrs. Okroy recruited Gabe Hoffer ’16 as her head photographer, Brett Robertson ’16 as her head videographer, and Alyson Linton ’15, Mackenzie Regier ’15, Shelby Klakulak ’15, Hannah Pauling ’15, Courtney Spurgeon ’15, Melissa Shaw ‘15, and Megan Anonick ’15 as her ‘pup’arazzi. Each of the students took pictures and/or video of the dogs as they came in on the red carpet and as they walked down the runway.
Since Gabe Hoffer was the head photographer, he had the chance to get closer to all of the action. “I got to take pictures of the setup before the show and talk to some of the dogs’ owners. One of the girls in the show was from Regina and she personally designed her dog’s outfit,” Gabe said.
Mackenzie Regier also had a great time helping out. “We took pictures of people and their dogs when they came in. We wanted to get them excited for the dog fashion show and we wanted to treat them like they were celebrities!” Mackenzie said. She also added that her favorite part of the day was seeing the dogs all dressed up.
While the whole event was for a good cause, it came with a price for Mrs. Okroy. “Between a 40 hour work week at school and spending 40 hours organizing everything, I’m exhausted! But it was well worth it,” Mrs. Okroy shared.
Now that the fundraiser has come to a close, the dogs at DDR will be well taken care of and Mrs. Okroy and her students made some new furry friends along the way!
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