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Peggy and Apollo
Peggy was one of our graduation speakers this year. Below is her speech which she feels bests describes her feelings about having Apollo in her life.
"When Summit first asked me to speak about my experiences with Apollo, my initial response was no way. I have never wanted to speak in front of crowds, and I still don't. Honestly, I'm scared to death right now and probably turning twenty different shades of red.
But then I started thinking about what Apollo means to me. I started thinking about the people who made it possible for me to have Apollo...like his puppy raiser, his trainers, the people who volunteer their time, and all those who have donated money to Summit along the way. I started thinking about the people who will make it possible for others like me to have an assistance dog in the future. I spend a lot of time thinking, can you tell?
Anyway, so after all that thinking, I started thinking about what I might actually say if I got up the nerve to do so. It was suggested that I could talk about my experiences in team training. Wow...team training...it was truly not what I expected it was going to be. My husband who was my caregiver had some medical complications that put him into the hospital on the third day of training for three weeks. The Summit staff offered to let us go home and come back later to complete training, but Eric wouldn't let me do that because he knew how much getting Apollo meant to me. So with the help of my very supportive family and friends, we made it through team training. What do I remember most about team training? I remember that having Apollo with me every night at the hotel helped me remain calm during what was a very stressful three weeks.
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