Humans of BluePath: Margaret Ruller, Sitter

Margaret and her husband, Peter, have been BluePath sitters for two years. Margaret is a curriculum director in the Hendrick Hudson School District. She is passionate about the life-changing benefits of service dogs and hosted dogs in training at the middle school career day. The students were thrilled to learn about what it was like to train and work with such special animals.

Margaret shares, “The next day, I went to the middle school, and I was swarmed by every special ed teacher. They were crying because there was a young man in our school at the time who was not very verbal and struggled with eye contact. He immediately sat down with the dog and began to speak with everyone. The teachers were amazed how the dog encouraged him to communicate.”

“If I could have a dog in each school I would absolutely do it. It\’s an amazing experience and I know that it has made such an impact.”

Fun Facts:

• One of the Rullers’ favorite volunteer memories is having two puppies for three weeks during the holidays.

• Margaret describes dog-sitting as a giant playdate for her own two pet dogs, Caroline and Max

• The Rullers’ most recent dog-sitting charge was Mikey.

Favorite Part of Sitting:

Knowing that I\’m helping somebody who is helping a dog that will change a kid\’s life. This is the easiest thing for us to do in the situation that we\’re in now, and it makes me feel good that I see the difference they make with children just by visiting schools. They are such special animals and this is a great way for us to give back. It\’s been a delightful experience with every dog we\’ve had.

Advice for Prospective Volunteers:

Just open up your heart and go for it. It takes so little for us to be able to do this and it\’s a great fit for us to be able to help in any small way. I would say just jump with both feet!