Rolling Meadows Academy Of Dog Training, LLC - In The News - Fox 8 News, Channel 2 News, The Dispatch, Courrier Tribune, Thomasville Times and The Denton Orator

DOGS BEHIND BARS has been in progress since 1981. The program was started by Sister Pauline Quinn in 1981 in Washington State with dogs trained by inmates for the disabled. Since 1981 it has spread across the country from Washington State to Florida.

In 1994 North Carolina started the "New Leash on Life" Pilot Program. The New Leash on Life program is now in Marion, Black Mountain, Vanceboro, Tillery, Elizabethtown, Mt. Pleasant, Guilford and NOW IN DAVIDSON COUNTY.

The Humane Society of Davidson County in Partnership with the North Piedmont Correctional Center for Woman in Lexington, NC and Rolling Meadows Academy of Dog Training put our first 2 dogs behind bars in the North Piedmont Correctional Center for Woman in A NEW LEASH ON LIFE PROGRAM on March 1, 2006 at 10:00AM. Unlike many of the inmates at the Lexington unit, our dogs will only stay in the prison unit behind bars for 8 weeks.

During their eight weeks stay, they will live with the carefully selected inmates who will train and prepare these dogs for adoption into forever loving homes. These are unwanted, abandoned or surrendered dogs who would otherwise remain throughout their lives in foster homes or be euthanized.

A NEW LEASH ON LIFE is a NC state program that allows minimum and medium custody prisoners in North Carolina prisons to partner with local animal welfare agencies or animal shelters to train dogs in preparation for their adoptions. It gives inmates an opportunity to serve our community by providing basic training for adoptable rescue dogs.

Dogs selected for the program are carefully screened and selected for the New Leash on Life Program by the Humane Society of Davidson County and Rolling Meadows Academy of Dog Training, LLC.

The Humane Society works with the dogs that come into the adoption program from their first day, throughout their medical care, spay or neuter, training, selection of foster parents, screening and selecting adoption applicants and finally taking the animals to their new forever homes.

Training for the New Leash on Life program is conducted by Allen and Barbara Simpson of Rolling Meadows Academy of Dog Training, LLC., certified dog trainer and Behavior modification specialist.

Private Lessons are presented in classroom type sessions on site at the Lexington unit by Allen and Barbara to the Inmate/Trainers 2-3 times weekly. After formal instruction, The inmate/trainers are accompanied with their dog's to the outside fenced yard. The inmates proof the dogs obedience training at Finch Park Ball Field across from the Correction Center. Inmates continue training throughout the day each day for 8 weeks.

Allen and Barbara volunteer their time for animal related humane work such as New Leash on Life while conducting their own private full time dog training and boarding facility, Rolling Meadows Academy of Dog Training, LLC. 336.859.5530, www.rollingmeadowkennels.com, k9s@windstream.net.

Prison Inmate/Trainers are also carefully selected and must meet strict criteria requirement to be a part of this state regulated program.

Policy and guidelines for the New Leash on Life Program are set by the State of North Carolina Department of Correction.

On a local level, inmate/trainers are selected by the local Prison Program Director and supervisory personnel and must be accepted as an Inmate/Trainer in accordance with guidelines set for the program by the State of NC.

The Program is monitored and coordinated at a state level by a Division Program Coordinator.

The Lexington unit is under the responsibility of:

1) the North Piedmont Correctional Center for Woman Superintendent

2) the Facility Primary Program Coordinator

3) the Facility Secondary Program Coordinator

A New Leash on Life Program allows the inmate to give something back to the community, build self-esteem and the dog gets a great opportunity to be adopted as a companion animal in a forever home.

A doctoral research study done on over 300 youths that participated in “Project Pooch” a sister program to “A New Leash on Life” showed a ZERO RECIDIVISM RATE and 150 dogs placed in loving homes. Dr. Sandra Merriam-Anudrini Doctoral Research. http.//www.deltasociety.org/ppart0106.htm.

Dogs are assigned a primary and a secondary trainer. The inmate/trainers job starts at 6:00am each day and ends around 10:30pm when they put their dogs to bed. They are responsible for complete care of the dog for eight weeks until graduation day.

GRADUATION DAY. This is truly an emotional high for everyone and you are invited. (Please call a program director for the next Graduation Date.)

On graduation day, dogs are presented to families who are prescreened and selected by Becky Everhart of the Humane Society of Davidson County. Families who are pre-approved for adoption will receive their new family member, their dog on graduation day. The Inmate/Trainer will formally hand over the dog to its new owner during the ceremony.

The inmate/trainer will also receive his new dog and the rotation begins again.

Rolling Meadows Academy of Dog Training, LLC is a proud sponsor of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation (MCSF). Every year Rolling Meadows Academy Sponsors a Doggie Fun Fair with 100% of the benefits going to the (MCSF). If you wish to donate to this organization follow the MCSF website link below. Rolling Meadows Academy does not accept donations on behalf of the MCSF.

Welcome to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation!

Our mission is to provide financial assistance in the form of scholarships for higher education to deserving sons and daughters of Marines and children of former Marines, with particular attention being given to children whose parent was killed or wounded in action. We are proud of our long history and commitment: Since 1962, we have awarded more than 20,000 scholarships and bonds totaling almost $31.2 million, including $2.2 million to 977 scholarship recipients in 2006. We hope you take time to explore this site and learn more about our mission and scholarship program.

The Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation (MCSF) has recently embarked on a historic fundraising campaign. Our goals are to double our average scholarship award to $3,000 a year for children of current and former Marines and endow our commitment to award $20,000 in scholarship assistance to every child of a Marine, or of a Navy Corpsman serving with the Marines, whose parent is killed in the Global War on Terror. This is a five year capital campaign (2006-2010) to raise $50 million and is entitled "American Patriots Campaign".

Man makes stand, sign against littering

By Chip Womick -- Staff Writer, The Courier-Tribune
Posted: 08/26/07 - 08:07:48 pm CDT

ASHEBORO — Jack Urban tired of picking up trash from the roadside in front of his house on Loflin Pond Road every day, so he put up a homemade sign to discourage littering.

The sign tacked onto a stake did not bear any words, just a frowning face and a question mark. Using string, Urban tied the litter he picked up to the sign; there were so many cans, bottles, cups and such dangling from it, the sign fell over.

A few times, mischief-makers have tossed the sign into his pond by the road and Urban has had to fish it out of the water. On the Fourth of July, someone stole a U.S. flag from atop the stick. And, “Mr. Bud,” as Urban calls the abundance of discarded Budweiser cans and bottles he finds, is still a regular visitor. The continued tossing of beer bottles prompted Urban to add a small placard to his original sign. It has three bold letters on it: DWI.

Someone is paying attention though. Since he erected his anti-litter statement, Urban said, the volume of trash cast out in front of his house has dropped to about a quarter of what it was.

“I’ve met many neighbors who stopped to say, ‘Thank you for what you’re doing,” Urban said. “They say it’s even eased up in front of their houses.”

Urban has asked the state to put up no littering signs on Loflin Pond Road, but plans to keep his anti-littering sign up as long as necessary.

“We had the same problem in New Jersey,” he said. “We lived in a rural area and I used to walk my dog and get so aggravated. It’s not unique to North Carolina. We’ve got American slobs everywhere. But if you go up into Canada, you don’t see this.”

Urban and his wife, Pauline, are New Jerseyites, born and bred. They moved to Randolph County about 20 months ago after years of traveling south to visit one of Pauline’s sons, who came to North Carolina to attend school and never left.

He retired a few years back after a career as a maintenance instructor for the U.S. Army, teaching soldiers to do everything from checking the oil in a vehicle to changing the tracks on a track vehicle. Though he is a veteran, having served three years in the Army in the early 1960s, Urban was a civilian employee.

She worked as a staffing coordinator in a nursing home before embarking on a new career a dozen years ago as a print and design broker. She has produced promotional pieces for a variety of customers, including Atlantic City casinos. Her primary clients today include a chain of high-end women’s clothing stores with stores from the East Coast to Hawaii.

Her services include putting together a product for the customer, say a flashy invitation to a special weekend at a casino, having it printed, and then mailing it to her customer’s customers. She works from home, which can be anywhere, she explained, since the essential tools of her trade are a computer with Internet access and a fax machine.

He keeps busy with a variety of enterprises. During grass-growing season, he’s typically on his tractor an hour or two a day, keeping their seven-acre homestead well-groomed. Urban also decided to put some of that land to practical use.

Though he had never been a gardener, he purchased some books to find out what he needed to know, got a tiller and set to work breaking up the hard red clay behind his house to make a garden spot. The engine expired on the first tiller so he bought another. That one broke, too, so he bought a tractor.

Urban built a small greenhouse and planted flower seeds. When spring came round, he carefully transplanted the little plants — zinnias, coneflowers, Black-eyed Susans and more. He scrambled to save them from a late frost in April, covering the delicate plants with tarpaper at night. Then they grew like gangbusters.

Now, he sells flower bouquets — assembled by Pauline — on Saturdays and Sundays. The business is based on the honor system; customers simply leave money in a box — $3 per bunch — and take their pick from the flowers displayed at the end of the Urbans’ driveway.

Next year, Urban plans to expand the garden, adding Silver King corn to his offerings.

“I love being out there playing in the dirt,” he said. “I always wanted to be a farmer. I haven’t really made any money. Maybe by the time I’m 90, I’ll break even.”

When his pond got murky, he purchased a windmill aeration system designed to pump fresh air into the water through an air stone at the bottom of the pond. He needed to get to the middle of the pond to drop the stone, so he bought a cheap rubber dinghy from a discount store. The boat took on water the first time he tried it.

He asked a tugboat captain friend in New Jersey where he could get a good little boat. The captain told him he could build one from plans found on the Internet. So that’s what he did. When it came time to launch the 12-foot, flat-bottom plywood boat about a month ago, Jack asked Pauline to jump in for the first voyage. She declined, replying that he should get in and she would give him a push.

“It’s a great boat,” he said. “It’s fun. We go out at night and we go paddling. We go scavenging for bottles and cans.”

A few years back when Urban was still living in New Jersey, he saw a TV program about an organization called the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, a nonprofit group that, since 1962, has provided scholarships for children of Marines, particularly those killed or wounded in action. He liked the idea, planned to send a donation, then thought that perhaps he could do more.

He and some friends in a motorcycle club held a rally that generated more than $5,000 for the Foundation in its first year. After he moved South, he could not generate local interest in a motorcycle rally, so he asked his dog trainer, Barbara Simpsons, of Rolling Meadows Academy of Dog Training in Denton, if she was interested in teaming to put on a fund-raiser. She said she was.

They held their first Fall Doggie Fun Fest last year at Frazier Park in Asheboro on the Saturday of the annual Fall Festival. Despite the day being cold and rainy, washing out their event, they raised more than $800 in donations.

This year’s Doggie Fest will be held on Oct. 6 from 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Again it will be in Frazier Park on Fall Festival weekend. Events for dogs of all breeds will include obedience, agility, best costume, best trick, best groomed, biggest, smallest and best in show. There will be prizes, demonstrations and a hot dog lunch.

“Right after 9/11,” Urban said, “everybody’s running around with ribbons on their car. Here’s a chance to do a little bit more than put a ribbon on your car. No matter what your politics are, you still got people dying over there (in Iraq and Afghanistan).”

For more information about the Foundation can be found online at . For information on the Oct. 6 event, contact Urban at or Simpsons at .

JUMP START YOUR DOG'S TRAINING

In-School Basic Obedience & Etiquette™ Training is our most popular program, normally for owners with busy schedules, who are less patient or for those who prefer results more quickly.

We Train...

Welcome to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation!