Red Cross volunteer Michael Pritchard and Leo, his German shepherd service dog.
By Carl Manning
When Red Cross volunteer Michael Pritchard shows up at a disaster, he brings his ability to help people at a shelter, along with Leo, his German shepherd service dog.
Michael is a member of the Shelter Resident Transition team that helps those staying in a shelter after a tornado struck St. Louis to overcome roadblocks preventing them from leaving.
Six-year-old Leo is always at Michael’s side, and in his way, the dog lends a helping paw to the recovery process. Over the years, Leo has been with Michael on fourteen different disaster response operations.
Selina Bailey hugs shepherd service dog, Leo.
Michael said a benefit of having Leo with him is that the dog picks up on the mood of a shelter resident.
It makes it easier to talk to the residents. A dog knows when a person is depressed or unhappy,” Michael said.
As Michael and Leo walked through a shelter after the St. Louis tornado, people who were staying there because their homes were no longer habitable came up and asked if they could pet Leo. The dog took it all in stride and appeared to enjoy all the attention from everybody, from little children to older adults.
“This isn’t a normal environment, and a dog is a welcome distraction from what they have been dealing with,” Michael said, as he watched Selina Bailey reach down and hug Leo.
While at the shelter since the storm, Selina has been working with Michael to find a place to stay. The previous day, after Michael talked to a potential employer, she found out she had been hired and would start work the next day.
“The Red Cross was amazing and really helped a lot,” Selina said. “Michael believed in me, and that helped a lot. I’m so happy and thankful.”
She was living in an apartment complex when the tornado ripped off the roof and lifted the building from its foundation. She managed to salvage three bags of clothes and a few other items and found her way to the shelter, where she met Michael and Leo.
One of the things Michael does is talk to those in the shelters and find out what they need. He works with them to overcome things like housing and job challenges, and in Selina’s case, he helped her get the job and get into a new apartment.
“Our job is to get a person into a sustainable situation. The goal is to have a place to stay and a way to pay for it,” he said. “We get to make a big impact on people as we help them with their recovery.”
Michael said there isn’t a single solution because the challenges vary with those who need help. It could be anything from removing a fallen tree so a person can get back into their home to fixing a storm-damaged vehicle so a person can get to work.
“The question is what is going to help them in this situation to help them get to the new normal they need to create,” he said.
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