Newtown Comfort

Maggie's Comfort Corner
As Maggie’s handlers in this ministry of presence, we strive to follow the lead of Maggie’s visitors on what to say, when to say it, and how much to say. Sometimes our job is to “show up and shut up,” as was the case on Monday, November 26th when we deployed along with three other Lutheran Church Charities comfort dogs to Long Island Lutheran Middle and High School in Brookville, NY at the request of LCC. There was an unexpected death of one of their sophomore students, and the principal requested comfort dogs to be there all day Monday to help ease the transition back to school from the funeral and the Thanksgiving break weekend.
We got the invitation the day before Thanksgiving. Four days later, on Sunday, we had not just one, but two of Maggie’s handlers, Lori Flandreau and Bev Thompson, heading down to Long Island with Maggie for a preparatory comfort dog team meeting and a night in a hotel so they could be in the school bright and early the next day. We have such a dedicated team!
Back to “showing up and shutting up.” We didn’t know the circumstances around the death, and we’re not trained counselors, so our job was to let the dogs do the talking—don’t ask prying questions, don’t try to provide answers to questions we can’t answer, etc. And we can direct the students to the school’s counselors if/when needed. As is typical of these types of visits, the counselors don’t get much work—the students spend their time with the dogs. Bev and Lori said they could see how the dogs brightened the students’ day, and the staff was very appreciative and astonished to witness the comforting power of the dogs.
When we head out with Maggie, we never know what we might be faced with, what we might have to deal with, even on our routine scheduled visits, but we trust that the Lord will help us find just the right thing to say (or not say), and he does.
In addition to our regularly scheduled visits over the past couple months, here are some more special invitations we fulfilled with Maggie.

We served alongside comfort dog Addie (Maggie’s sister) from Immanuel Lutheran in Danbury at Putnam Valley High School, NY for grief support after the sudden death of a beloved teacher.
We participated in Danbury Hospital’s Mission Health Day where 450 people in need came for free health screenings and supportive services.
We visited Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Yonkers—they wanted to learn more about LCC K9 Comfort Dogs, and ended up giving us a generous donation.
We attended the Sandy Hook School’s book fair, including an evening visit with comfort dog Addie joining us. Students could read their new books to the comfort dogs.
Christ the King hosted an all-day LCC K9 Comfort Dog northeast regional meeting that included six comfort dogs and about 45 people. With two trainers from Chicago in attendance, we got in lots of refresher training and said many prayers, all in the company of fellow handlers.
We attended, alongside Immanuel’s comfort dogs Addie and Leah, the Vicki Soto 5K, a fundraiser for the Vick Soto Memorial Fund. Vicki lost her life tragically in the Sandy Hook School shooting. The Fund is used to support many vital educational initiatives, honoring Vicki’s commitment to teaching.
We had Maggie at the Fall Fair for a public meet and greet.
Maggie visited a friend at the Lutheran Home in Southbury, who was rehabilitating after a minor stroke.

If you’d like to learn more about Newtown Comfort, just ask one of Maggie’s handlers, or visit Maggie Comfort Dog on Facebook or lcck9maggie on Instagram. feel free to email me at
NewtownComfort@gmail.com

with Golden HUGs
Maggie

LCC COMFORT DOGS-
LCC Deployments in CA and FL Updates
Shooting - Fires - Hurricane Michael
Only in the arms of God is there a safe place!

"God is our safe place and our strength.
He is always our help when we are in trouble."
Psalm 46:1

Lutheran Church Charities is currently on multiple Disaster and Crisis Response deployments in California (mass shooting and fires) and in Florida (Hurricane Michael). The California deployment for the shootings is now also serving all the families displaced from their homes because of the fires happening right now - and we are in the middle of it.

There is still widespread devastation in Panama City, Florida, and our Disaster Response LERT volunteers are on the ground this week to do chainsaw work, tarping roofs, and anything that needs to be done to help those who are still not in their homes from Hurricane Michael. In addition, the semi-truck is arriving today with food and other critical items donated to help the 6,000 individuals each week that Trinity is serving.

We PUT and KEEP boots and paws on the ground to be with people who are suffering! Please keep everyone in California and Florida in your prayers - as in both places we are serving people who have been traumatized.

Click Here to Watch "Wags- N-Tales"
an Emmy Award Winning Documentary produced by Ken Fay that features Maggie in Action.

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