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Wahoo Elementary's WATCH D.O.G.S. program sees increased popularity & involvement

Second-year initiative provides positive role models to students & added security to school

Wahoo parent Ryan Ideus takes a shift as one of Wahoo Elementary's WATCH D.O.G.S., a daily initiative designed to, among other things, provide positive male role models for our students.

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Wahoo parent Ryan Ideus takes a shift as one of Wahoo Elementary's WATCH D.O.G.S., a daily initiative designed to, among other things, provide positive male role models for our students.

Hello Warrior Families! We are excited to announce that The WATCH D.O.G.S. program, which started at Wahoo Elementary for the 2021-2022 school year, is going strong, and we are always looking for more dads to get involved!

WATCH D.O.G.S.^® (Dads of Great Students) is a family and community engagement educational initiative. The program aims to provide positive male role models for the students, demonstrating by their presence that education is important, and to provide extra sets of eyes and ears to enhance school security and reduce bullying.

There are many wonderful benefits to this program, including students gaining positive male role models, and fathers getting a glimpse of their students’ everyday world at school. Volunteer dads also learn about the increasingly complex challenges and decisions today’s youth are facing, and as a result, are better able to relate to and make lasting connections with their own children.  

WATCH D.O.G.S. are fathers, grandfathers, uncles, and other father figures who volunteer for at least one day each year at an official WATCH D.O.G.S.^® school. During the day, WATCH D.O.G.S. may be asked to read and work on flash cards with students, play at recess, eat lunch with students, watch the school entrances and hallways, assist with traffic flow, and any other assigned activities where they actively engage with not only their own students, but other students as well. 

The Warrior WATCH D.O.G.S. program has proven to be a huge success, and with your help will continue to grow with more involvement from our students' dads.

"It has been a lot of fun to see students' faces light up when they see the Watch D.O.G.S.," commented Wahoo Elementary Counselor Cindy Klepper. "It's been wonderful having a new, outside person come into the school to be a positive role model for students. The Watch D.O.G.S. are able to share their life experiences and relate students' learning to how it applies in their jobs or other activities."

For more information or to sign up to be a Warrior WATCH D.O.G., please contact the TOP DOG (i.e. program coordinator) Grady Gigstad at (402) 525-9876 or email topdog@wahoowarriors.org.

Thank you for your continued support of this important program!