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The College of Northern Iowa (UNI) marching band, The Panther Marching Band, has a cute and ‘Golden’ member stealing the present – Winnie the Golden Retriever, a service canine to a UNI sophomore.
In an interview with KCRG, Winnie’s hooman and UNI sophomore Gabi Riessen mentioned, “I’m a part of the marching band, so meaning she is, too.”
Winnie, a Golden Retriever, is Riessen’s service canine. In a UNI article, Riessen revealed her relationship with Winnie and the way she ended up within the marching band with Winnie.
Riessen is a switch majoring in elementary schooling from Denison, Iowa. From her earlier faculty, she was “met with obstacles” to take part in band and theater as a result of she has a service canine.
Within the article, Riessen reveals that she selected to switch to UNI as a result of two of her pals attended the college. And since she hopes to get the complete school expertise, with Winnie by her aspect, at UNI.
“One among my greatest pals, Ren — she’s on the colour guard crew, and she or he advised me about how a lot she beloved it and the way wonderful Director Justin Mertz is,” mentioned Riessen.
“So she gave me his electronic mail, and I reached out to him to see if being within the band with my canine might even be a risk, and we met and talked about it. I feel he’s extra excited to have a canine within the band than I’m.”
Right this moment, Winnie is a part of the Panther Marching Band. She marches with Riessen and stays by her aspect within the frontline.
Riessen even reveals, “Truthfully, I feel she’s a greater marcher than me. She’s simply actually good at adapting to any scenario I put her in.”
Additionally reveals that Winnie loves the eye she will get as a marching band member. Riessen reveals, “There’s so many individuals watching her, and she or he eats it up.”
Nonetheless, earlier than being a Panther Marching Band member, Winnie is, at the start, a service canine to Reissen.
As a service canine, Winnie helps Riessen handle her postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) – a power dysfunction that causes downside in an individual’s autonomic nervous system.
Riessen explains POTS in easy phrases saying, “For me, it signifies that I go out randomly with out warning. Like my coronary heart fee simply fluctuates greater than most individuals.”
Winnie is skilled to select up on modifications in Riessen that signifies a fainting spell. She is going to then alert Riessen of an upcoming fainting spell, permitting the UNI sophomore to get to a protected spot to keep away from hurting herself. She is going to then lie beside Riessen and defend her.
Riessen mentioned Winnie supplies her with a “sense of normalcy”. “Winnie has made it the place I might be like a standard particular person once more,” mentioned Riessen.
“I can do band, as a result of she’ll let me know if I’m okay, and I can go to my lessons. Earlier than her, we didn’t know if school was going to be an possibility.”
And whereas service canine can’t be pet throughout their “work hours”, Winnie is completely different. Riessen reveals that she doesn’t thoughts when folks pet Winnie, giving again the sense of normalcy that the pooch has been offering her.
“If we’re not doing something, I’ll allow them to pet her as a result of she deserves to be a canine and to have enjoyable as a result of I might hate for her to only be so structured that she misses out on that,” she mentioned.
