What’s Right With Our Schools: SE Whitfield Pawsome Program
DALTON, GA (WDEF) – Pets are our best friends, but keeping them clean and clipped can be challenging. Students at Southeast Whitfield are getting some valuable lessons through the Pawsome Pet Grooming Program. It’s a fresh smelling example of “What’s Right With Our School.”
“Paw-Some Pup Washing Academy is what we come up with just a little name that we used to write our grant with and it kinda stuck,” Zack Lumpkin, Southeast Whitfield AG teacher, said.
“We were wanting to do something hands on. To allow students to get out of the chairs and get to work,” Lumpkin continued.
He says. “Kinda the background is, we have a lot of students that come through our AG program. We have about 470 students a year they come through AG. And we have a lot that wanna be vets.”
He continues, “We all know the vet industries and competitive industries one of the most competitive job markets out there in terms of getting into the Vet goals. So we want to offer an alternative to them.”
“I have some on my committee that runs a kennel and kind of talking to him. He’s like there’s always gonna be a market for grooming and there’s always gonna be a market for washing,” Lumpkin said.
He says, “Anytime we can get us a student today office a cell phone off computer and they’re actually getting soft skill. I think that’s probably the hardest thing is they gotta learn to work with other people. And if we can do it right here when they get out in our community, it’s a smooth transition for any employer. And I think one of the most important things we can do have student third job ready and soft skill ready when they leave when they leave the school. And so, this was the first year of it. Obviously there’s things we’re gonna adjust a year too and moving forward I hope that we can continue to grow… And I will, I really want to reach out to community and get community members in here and maybe talk to folks that are in the dog washing business with the dog grooming business, and telling them the possibilities. Because every town has lots of lots of pets. And so if we can figure out how to maybe open it on these kids to start a business doing it or, just a side business. So we’re hopefully gonna lead into that going in the next year kind of winding things down for this year. But I think the business is booming more than ever.”
