'Wick Senior Brings Message of CHAMPS
Benjy Levy, a senior at Brunswick School, has grown up with and loved dogs his entire life. As president of the after-school community service club, CHAMPS (Children Against Mines Program), Benjy is eager for classmates to learn more about the powerful services trained dogs can do to sniff out landmines in war torn villages around the world. At an Upper School assembly, CHAMPS representative Colonel Perry Baltimore spoke to the students about how every half hour, someone falls victim to a landmine.
“Ninety percent (90%) of the victims are innocent civilians, one third of whom are children, who lose limbs, eyesight or their life,” he said.
Betsy Parkinson, also of CHAMPS, set up a mock minefield onstage at Baker Theater and showed how Utsi, a Belgian Malinois, was trained to sniff it out. The highly trained dog, which served more than five years in Africa, has since retired from active mine detection and now serves as the official CHAMPS Canine Ambassador.
“It costs a great deal of money to train CHAMPS dogs for their duties to detect landmines,” said Benjy. His brother David, who graduated from Brunswick in 2008, initially started the CHAMPS Club. “Our fundraising efforts are a way to help alleviate the fear people have of stepping on active landmines when they leave their homes or kids ride their bicycles. It’s worth supporting any organization that helps save innocent lives.”
Photo: Benjy Levy, '11 with Utsi, a highly trained Belgian Malinois who is the canine ambassador for CHAMPS (Children Against Mines Program).