Recently, cross country coach Luis Escobar was inspired to pair his St. Joseph High School cross country team with adoptable dogs from the Santa Barbara Animal Shelter. His goal was to inspire students to get some community service hours and to get dogs outside for fun, exercise, and socializing, and hopefully to help dogs get adopted.
One lucky dog named Fred was the first to benefit from the shelter run.
Fred comes in last place for running but first place for snuggling
You might remember Fred from the original viral video. He gives up early on in the multi-mile jog, but his volunteer runner fell for him anyway, and he and his mom were back at the shelter later that week to take Fred home to snuggle in peace.
St. Joseph cross country team shelter dog run goes viral
After being posted to the St. Joseph Facebook page, the story went viral. Gaining attention from local and national news. Escobar has heard from other coaches across the country eager to try a shelter run in their community too. He explains, “everyone’s grasping for something good, honest and positive and I think we’re all so disappointed with what we see coming out of our TVs right now and the people our kids are supposed to look up to and this is just a simple small sincere thing that [resonates].”
Ruffwear donates comfy new harnesses to animal shelter
Since gaining national attention, the dog accessory company Ruffwear has donated brand new comfort harnesses to the Santa Barbara Animal Shelter for dogs to use during outings.
Hat tip: For The Win
