Angie Thornton, accompanied by Colin Thornton of Benoni van Ryn Rotary Club, gave us a talk on Therapy Dogs. it was very interesting seeing how these dogs are used in all sorts of therapeutic activities from old age homes to children in hospitals. Angie is passionate about the use of these dogs and the biggest problem appears to be finding people with suitable dogs who are willing to give up their time. 
The Thorntons brought two dogs with them, both rescued Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. I don't think they found Rotary an exciting experience. One obviously found it totally boring!On the lighter side someone casually mentioned to me that there such things as Therapy Chickens in the UK. The mind boggles! So I googled it.
A therapy chicken is specially selected and trained, and its owner specifically trained to handled a bird in order to provide therapeutic visitation, comfort, education and entertainment to people in retirement homes, assisted living, schools, rehabilitation facilities and other suitable venues. Learn how to work with your birds (often household pets) to take them safely and sanitarily to visitation places.
I can't find a picture of one...but in the USA:
CHESTERFIELD, VA (WWBT) -
A family is facing fines for chickens they consider therapeutic for their autistic son.
Robin Braun first discovered her son, Jonathan, was autistic when his development was different as a child. He is enrolled in different school programs and at home displays an interest in animals.
A few years ago, the family went to a state fair, where her son instantly fell in love with the chickens. He has since gotten many as pets, bonding with the hens.
His mom says the benefit goes beyond companionship for their son, who often feels isolated from his peers.
"It's always trying to get him to learn the value of teaching him the chores. He's got to have water, they have to have feed, you've got to go out there and pick up the eggs, you got to clean the stall," said Robin Braun.
As Ted Barclay, a Code Compliance Supervisor with the Chesterfield County Planning Department explains, the first call came in about the Braun family three years ago. A neighbor was calling to say the family had chickens in a residential area.
At that point, the department recognized that an amendment was being made to the county ordinance which may allow the Braun family to keep the chicken. As Barclay explained, his office did not fine the family at that time, hoping the ordinance would help them.
That ordinance now states that if you live in a residential zoning district, "keeping of up to six chickens is permitted with certain restrictions."
This summer, another tip came into Barclay's office that the family was in violation of that updated ordinance. When his team went to check it out, they found the family had 15 chickens. The judge gave them a 30-day grace period to make arrangements.
As of Monday morning, the family was able to place eight chickens at their daughter's home. The remaining seven stayed at home. On Tuesday, the Braun's are due back in court to pay fines from having too many chickens.
The family says separating the hens made Jonathan have a meltdown, torn apart with losing some of his companions.
Barclay suggested the family bring documentation to the county attorney's office to show the chickens are therapeutic. He says he wants to work with the family so they don't face fines and so they can keep the chickens without violating the county code.
The family says they are having a difficult time finding someone with Jonathan's school program to write those letters since he is out of school for the summer.
Copyright 2016 WWBT NBC12. All rights reserved
This Week
Ralf Meyer, our visiting Frankfurt Rotarian is going to talk about the Libor Scandal. The scandal was a series of fraudulent actions connected to the Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) and also the resulting investigation and reaction. The Libor is an average interest rate calculated through submissions of interest rates by major banks across the world. The scandal arose when it was discovered that banks were falsely inflating or deflating their rates so as to profit from trades, or to give the impression that they were more creditworthy than they were. Libor underpins approximately $350 trillion in derivatives. It is currently administered by NYSE Euronext, which took over running the Libor in January 2014.
Police officer takes the lessons of the Rotary peace programme to the streets of Philadelphia
The tension is palpable as we cruise through a neighborhood of dilapidated row houses in one of the toughest parts of Philadelphia. Buildings jaggedly rise from the street – like a mouth full of busted teeth.
Lt. D.F. Pace nods to acknowledge a stare. He understands.
In his 15-year career with the Philadelphia Police Department, Pace has taken pride in being naturally tolerant and level-headed, qualities that helped him rise through the ranks.
But he is human. To maintain a level head under pressure, at times he uses several techniques he learned through the Rotary Peace Fellowship program.
In 2010, Pace applied for the intensive three-month professional certificate program in Thailand. The idea had come to then-Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey through a suggestion from the Philadelphia Rotary Club, the 19th-oldest Rotary club in the world. Pace relished the challenge. “As soon as I saw it, I said, ‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.’”
Philadelphia Police Department
Pace saw the fellowship as a way to defuse a developing powder keg. “Even before events like what happened in Ferguson [Mo.], I saw an unease developing between police and the community,” he recalls. “I thought, ‘If we don’t get a handle on this, the lid’s going to come off.’”
The growing tension between police and residents also troubled members of the Philadelphia Rotary Club. They considered a few ideas until Joseph Batory, then scholarship chair of the club, had a light-bulb moment: the peace fellowship.
“Sometimes the obvious is right in front of us,” says Batory. “It finally dawned on me that a police officer is at the very forefront of violence prevention and peacebuilding and, as such, would be a great fit for Rotary’s three-month certification program.”
In D.F. Pace, known as “D” to friends, Batory believed the club had found the perfect candidate: “He was an up-and-coming young lieutenant with patrol experience on the streets, but he’s also a lawyer and thus well-versed in the legal aspects of proper policing,” he says. “He reflected Commissioner Ramsey’s vision of creating a new generation of police officers with enhanced professionalism, dramatically improved judgment, and dedication to being instruments of peace.”
Friction, racial and otherwise, between police and the people they protect is not new. But the killings of unarmed black men by police in recent years, captured on camera phones and broadcast on the nightly news, have indeed touched a match to the kindling that Pace and others saw piling higher and higher.
Philadelphia has not had the kind of headline-grabbing police-involved shootings that St. Louis, Chicago, and New York have had. However, it ranks in the top 20 in murder and crime rates among big cities in the United States. Almost from day one, Ramsey (who retired in January 2016) looked for innovative ways to avoid the former and reduce the latter.
“Ramsey’s a forward thinker,” says Pace. “He was always looking for ways to infuse new ideas into his police department.” Even so, when Philadelphia Rotary Club members pitched the peace fellowship to Ramsey, they kept their expectations low. But when Batory met with the commissioner, Ramsey took out a notepad and listened intently. He liked the idea and put out a citywide memorandum inviting officers to apply.
Each year, Rotary selects up to 100 individuals from around the world to receive fully funded academic fellowships at a peace center. These fellowships cover tuition and fees, room and board, round-trip transportation, and all internship and field-study expenses.
In just over a decade, the Rotary Peace Centers have trained more than 1,000 fellows for careers in peacebuilding. Many of them go on to serve as leaders in national governments, nongovernmental organizations, the military, and international organizations like the United Nations and World Bank.
Pace says his cohort included a labor relations specialist, a women’s rights advocate, educators, and lawyers.
As Ramsey and the Philadelphia Rotary Club hoped, Pace incorporates what he learned in Thailand into the seminars he teaches for other officers, including a class called Fair and Impartial Policing. He also helps organize community town halls and speaks to Rotary clubs.
Perhaps most important, other ranking officers in Philadelphia – sergeants, lieutenants, and captains – who have taken Pace’s class are disseminating the information to their recruits. It’s a more impressive feat than it may seem.
The class wasn’t an easy sell, says Lt. Christine McShea, a 26-year veteran of the force who was required to take the class as part of a promotion. “It’s a difficult topic to get across, but he did a great job with it,” mainly, she says, “because he wasn’t trying to sugarcoat everything.”
One of the lessons Pace imparts comes directly from his time as a peace fellow. “Conflict itself is neither good nor bad. It’s neutral,” he tells his classes. “The good or bad comes from how we manage conflict.”
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