Berkner students tackle explosive issue Richardson: Group hopes to raise $40,000 for mine-detecting dogs
The faceless, silent enemy sits in a strange land thousands of miles away. But students in Richardson's Berkner High School CHAMPS program are doing their part to eliminate the deadly adversary. They're raising money to train and deploy land mine-detecting dogs to Bosnia and other countries ravaged by war
But students in Richardson's Berkner High School CHAMPS program are doing their part to eliminate the deadly adversary. They're raising money to train and deploy land mine-detecting dogs to Bosnia and other countries ravaged by war.
The students became aware of the landmine issue last year as ninth-graders at Apollo Junior High School, Berkner teacher and coach Scott Sellers said. They sponsored a dog -- Apollo -- who is now detecting mines left behind after the civil war in Bosnia. When the students and Mr. Sellers moved to Berkner this year, they decided to continue their efforts. The group hopes to raise $40,000 to train two of the specialized canines. "It's turned into an important lesson in international civic responsibility," Mr. Sellers said.
Last week, representatives from the Marshall Legacy Institute in Arlington, Va., traveled to Richardson to launch Berkner's CHAMPS program, featuring demonstrations by Rosa, a landmine detecting dog.
The 9-year-old institute, which is named for George C. Marshall, who engineered Europe's recovery from the devastation of World War II, trains and deploys the dogs.
The Berkner effort takes its name from the institute's CHAMPS -- or Children Against Mines -- Program. Perry Baltimore, president and executive director of the Marshall Institute, said that Apollo's 2005 work was "the first fully involved program in which a school sponsored a dog on its own. Of course, we're excited that the students want to do it again."
Mr. Sellers said that about 150 students are working on the project. They have formed four-student teams to write fundraising letters, establish a Web site, partner with local organizations and plan fundraising events.
The locally sponsored dogs will be Belgian Malinois, which resemble German shepherds. The dogs are more effective than metal detectors and probes, institute officials said. While a person can clear about 130 square feet of mines a day, a dog working with a handler can clear almost 5,000 square feet.
Kimberly McCasland, Marshall Institute's CHAMPS director, traveled to Richardson with Mr. Baltimore last week. She said the dogs are badly needed in Bosnia. About 1.3 million people are threatened by landmines in the region, according to a recent study. And 127 civilians were killed or injured by mines during the last two years, according to the Marshall Institute.
"They have so little, but the people are so glad that something is being done about the mines," Ms. McCasland said of the Bosnians. "Until the mines are cleared, the economy is being held hostage."