The recipient of this week's Ben's Bell is Carol Beagle, who helps children improve their reading skills — with bit of help from her canine companions.
Beagle was nominated by her friend, Mary Groves, who described Beagle as "a wonderful, wonderful person."
"The children really appreciate it," Groves said. "If you could have been there for our graduation ceremony and seen the expressions on their faces! Carol just made it so special."
Beagle taught second grade at Bonillas Basic Curriculum Magnet School, 4757 E. Winsett St., for about 20 years.
After she retired, she started searching for ways to continue helping children. She learned of a national program that teaches people how to help kids practice reading by taking service dogs to schools so kids can read to them. She quickly formed a local version of Paws for Reading, which celebrated its fourth year at Bonillas this year.
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The program this year included about 40 students and six humans — along with Shetland sheepdogs, a St. Bernard, Australian shepherds, a poodle, a pug and a border collie.
"When I started it, it was for the reading aspect, but it's been a whole lot more than that," Beagle said. "We really see their self-confidence, their self-esteem grow. It's become a coveted program. We've had kids who stutter in class, but they don't stutter when they come and read to the dogs. The principal mentioned one year that some of the kids who had disciplinary problems weren't having them any more, either.
"We want the kids to become lifelong readers, and so we try to make it enjoyable and fun and have really great books that the kids are going to love to read," she said, then deadpanned: "Of course, we pick books that the dogs enjoy, too."
Beagle is involved in a number of other therapy-dog programs and takes dogs to Tucson Medical Center and St. Mary's Hospital, along with several nursing homes. She also works with the Humane Society of Southern Arizona and other groups, and her work is affiliated with the Delta Society, an international group dedicated to service and therapy animals.
Groves and her husband moved here about a year ago and met Beagle soon afterward. Not surprisingly, the conversation soon took a canine turn.
Groves and her dog began going to Bonillas with her friend not long afterward. One day, she asked some people at the school if Beagle had ever been recognized. When they said no, Groves decided to nominate her for a Ben's Bell.
"I said someone needs to let Carol know that she's appreciated," Groves said.
The Ben's Bells folks complied, meeting Beagle at her house Thursday to present her with her bell.
"I was so honored," she said. "I read about it all the time and I enjoy seeing what people are giving to the community, as their job or as volunteers. Getting this was a huge honor."
True to their natures, Beagle and Ben's mother, Jeannette Maré-Packard then turned to discussing ways they might collaborate their efforts.
"Reading is so important," Beagle said. "I always felt that if I could teach the children to read, it was giving them a gift."
ben's bellings
The Ben's Bells project began in March 2003, one year after Ben Maré Packard died of croup, just before his third birthday. His family hopes it reminds people to be kind, to help ease one another's pain.
The latest phase of the project began in September 2005, weekly "bellings" for those among us who make our community a better, kinder place to live.
If you know people who deserve a Ben's Bell, nominate them to be "belled." Go to www.929themountain.com/pages/jennie_itm.html and click on Ben's Bellings. To learn more about the project, go to www.bensbells.org, or help work on bells by dropping by the studio, 816 E. University Blvd., in Geronimo Plaza. It's open Friday 2-7 and Saturday 10-3.
And check the Star each Saturday to see the latest recipient.
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