Jayna Navarro, a fifth-grade student at Sunnyslope Elementary School, has just 10 percent sight in one of her eyes and is blind in the other. She had a vision of working with her fellow classmates to raise money for The Seeing Eye – a foundation that breeds, raises and trains seeing-eye dogs for the blind with the support of donations.
“I wanted to do it because I want to support all the dogs,” she said. “I wanted to help all the dogs.”
Navarro said she wants to get a seeing-eye dog someday, though she will have to wait until she is at least 16, the youngest age at which most foundations will pair a person with visual impairments with a dog.
“I thought the whole school would do $200,” Navarro said during the last week of school. “I thought everyone would bring a few dollars.”
Katy Scoggin, Navarro’s classroom aide, already had counted $450 in donations, just in dollar bills collected. Scoggin was rolling coins from the many jars filled with change to deposit at Union Bank in the Parent-Teacher Organization account. The PTO will then write a check for the total to The Seeing Eye. Scoggin explained that the bank staff members usually run the change through a machine that counts and sorts it all for the schools, but the machine had been broken so she was tasked with rolling all the change by hand.
Scoggin initially suggested the fundraiser to Navarro.
“Jayna wants a seeing-eye dog one day, and I wanted to teach her to show her passion now and her dedication early on so when it’s time, when she is old enough, she can say she was passionate,” Scoggin said.
Navarro wrote a letter to The Seeing Eye in the fall asking for more information on the foundation founded in 1929 and based in New Jersey. Navarro received a letter back at the beginning of the school year that included information about the program and two fundraisers, “Pennies for Puppies” and “Dollars for Dogs.”
Navarro and her friends put up posters around school, while Navarro made announcements about the two-week fundraiser.
She also visited some of the classrooms to drop off an envelope to collect the change and she reminded her fellow students over the school’s intercom. She said she was nervous to talk over the intercom the first time she did it, but by the last time she was comfortable with it.
Navarro said her mother Lucia helped her to find change to bring in to contribute to the fundraiser. Navarro also approached visiting parents during Sunnyslope’s talent show to ask for donations. She said she selected the Pennies for Puppies fundraiser because she thought it would be more fun “especially for the kindergarteners.”
She said she plans to hold the fundraiser again next year, though she is unsure where she will be going to school in the fall, as she is applying to the California School for the Blind in Fremont. She was still completing interviews to see if she gets accepted as the school year ended.
“Next year I want to raise $5,000 so I can name a puppy,” she said.
Scoggins added that donors who raise $5,000 get to name a puppy, and they receive correspondence about the puppy as it grows and is trained.
“They get to follow the puppy through their lives,” Scoggin said.
Before Navarro could get her fundraiser going, Scoggin had her make a presentation to Sunnyslope Principal Bill Sachau on why she thought The Seeing Eye foundation was deserving. He was quickly on board.
“Next year I will do it for the whole year,” Navarro said.
For more in The Seeing Eye, visit www.SeeingEye.org or call 973-539-4425.
