(WWJ) The Santo family has found a way to help the Oxford Community Schools in honor of their son's memory and it comes in the form of a wagging tail, a wet nose and four legs.
Brad and Wendy Santo made a $10,000 donation on Monday toward a fundraising campaign whose goal is to outfit the Oxford School District with a therapy dog program to help staff and students heal from the deadly Nov. 30 shooting that claimed the lives of four students.
The Santo family donation comes days after police recovered their 18-year-old son's body from the Red Cedar River on Michigan State University's campus -- he had been missing since Oct. 2021.
A note from the Rochester Hills couple on the program's GoFundMe page said they were "supporting Oxford Schools -- and donating in honor of our son Brendan, who loved dogs."
Program founder Karen Storey from Brighton Area Schools said through Facebook that their pack of 12 social learning dogs -- the first program of it's kind in the state -- have been on-loan and assisting in Oxford as classes resumed this week.
After seeing how the dogs positively impacted the adults and children within the grieving community, Storey and other organizers launched a campaign to permanently bring therapy dogs to Oxford.
Storey said on GoFundMe that one therapy dog costs about $10,000, which goes towards the training needed for "each dog to meet the social and emotional needs of the students."
The Santo family's donation has spurred many others to contribute to the cause. Other donations with comments such as "for Brendan" and "in memory of Brendan Santo" have overflowed the fundraising page, which surpassed their original goal of $50,000.
Storey called the Santo's donation a "blessing."
"God is working through us all even when we have the heart break of them losing their son. I am so proud that we have a community of friends and families that know the impact our dogs make daily."
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Storey is a teacher of 17 years in the Brighton School District where her idea of offering community support within schools blossomed into the social emotional learning dogs program.
Her husband, Scott Storey, also works for the Brighton Area Schools as a Behavioral Management Specialist. He spoke to WWJ's Tony Ortiz about how the dogs have positively impacted students.
"When our community gets to see the impact that they're making not only here in Brighton but across the state, I think it can do nothing but warm people's hearts," Storey said.
Scott said the dogs have already visited schools in Howell and Clinton.
Both husband and wife hope to employ five dogs in the Oxford Community School district.
To learn more about the social emotional learning dog pack and their program mission, please visit BAS Pack of Dogs.
The fundraising campaign for Oxford Community School can be found at gofundme.com.
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