You’re Not Alone nonprofit brings therapy dogs to St. Cloud schools

• St. Cloud’s Tech High School has a therapy dog to help students feel comfortable in the counseling office through a local nonprofit.
• Amy Walz founded You’re Not Alone after seeing the positive impact a dog had on her family’s mental health.
• The organization has teams across Minnesota and is working on expanding in the St. Cloud School District.

The counseling office at Tech High School in St. Cloud has a new addition to the team this year.

Jennifer Schad, a school counselor at Tech High School, brings her golden retriever Murphy, a therapy dog, with her several days a week to help students feel comfortable in the guidance counselor’s office.

This school year is the first time Murphy has helped alongside Schad. After she entered Murphy in the school’s talent show last year, she saw how much fun the students had with him.

Superintendent Laurie Putnam helped Schad get in touch with the Monticello-based nonprofit You’re Not Alone, which connected Schad with the resources for therapy dog training this summer.

“I would love to bring this to my counseling and bring it to a school, because I just think it’s so uplifting and comforting to some students who need it, and so it was always kind of (my) lifelong dream,” Schad said.

Wright County resident Amy Walz founded You’re Not Alone after her family’s own struggles with mental health. In 2007, her preteen attempted suicide after being bullied at school for months, while Walz was also recovering from her own struggles with depression and anorexia.

As their family worked through their mental health challenges, a therapist recommended to Walz that she should get a dog for her son, which she said completely changed the family’s path to healing.

“Seeing the joy in my kids’ face in a time when life was really stressful, and just seeing a little glimmer of hope in my son’s eyes, I took that as quite a sign that we really needed to consider this as a tool in our toolbox for mental health,” Walz said.

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Following her family’s experience and a 30-year-career in the medical field, Walz started volunteering with the family’s newest dog, Willow, in Monticello schools in October 2021.

Since then, the organization has grown to volunteer teams in 42 schools across Minnesota and one in Rhode Island. Volunteers visit central Minnesota school districts like Big Lake, Elk River and Becker with their dog for a few hours a week.

You’re Not Alone helps connect interested volunteers with the training needed to prepare their dogs for therapy dog certification, as well as how to test the dog for certification and get scheduled to volunteer in local school districts.

Watching the nonprofit grow has been fulfilling, Walz said. She loves seeing the children become more comfortable with sharing how they are feeling with volunteers and classmates.

“It’s overwhelming at times in a really, really positive way,” Walz said. “Everyone is accepted … the dog does that; it creates that environment where everyone feels better around each other, and they’re more empathetic and understanding.”

Walz is currently working on expanding the organization to the St. Cloud School District, which currently has three teams of volunteers. However, she hopes about 13 more can be added to the area.

Rather than visit Tech High School as a volunteer, Schad brings Murphy with her to work several days a week as a facility dog.

The duo often greet students coming and leaving in the morning and afternoon, and students will visit Schad’s office to decompress with Murphy for a few minutes or to simply give him a treat.

“He’s a very attractive thing that I think has made kids a little more open in approaching a counselor and needing help with something,” Schad said. “He draws a lot of attention, and it’s been really fun for me to get to know more students because of that.”

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Schad also visits health classes with Murphy during their mental health units, so students can learn about therapy dogs, and teachers will call Schad if they would like her to bring her dog by a classroom to help a student become calmer.

“I think he can be grounding … he tends to kind of bring people into the present moment and grounds them, so I would say most students that come in leave a little bit happier, a little bit calmer,” Schad said.

In the future, Schad said she would like to expand to offering group sessions with Murphy, as well as letting kids accompany the pair on walks outside.

This month, she also received her certification in animal-assisted crisis response, which will allow her to help the school’s community in case of a crisis, such as the loss of a student or teacher.

“It just opens lines of communication and brings about a little more of a sense of belonging or connection,” Schad said. “He’s just easy going, and students tend to feel better when they’re getting the comfort of a dog while they’re maybe needing to talk about something.”

Teagan King covers business and development for the St. Cloud Times. She can be reached at teking@gannett.com

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