This nonprofit is naming guide dog puppies after the Boston Marathon winners
There’s an extra (cute and furry) perk this year for the winners of the Boston Marathon.
Guiding Eyes for the Blind, a New York-based nonprofit that breeds and trains guide dogs for the visually impaired, is planning to name two puppies from a soon-to-be born litter after the male and female winners of this year’s race.
“It came to mind as a really special way to recognize what dogs can do for people,” Thomas Panek, the CEO of Guiding Eyes, told Boston.com.
“We hope that it will bring awareness for what these dogs can do for people, helping them stay healthy and active,” he said, adding that it’s the first time the group has ever done a special naming.
Guiding Eyes trains and provides 160 guide dogs a year. Generally, the group assigns newborn puppies to names according to a letter of the alphabet. But this year they will reserve one female and one male puppy to be be named after the male and female winners of the marathon.
The new litter is expected to be born next Tuesday at the latest – if not on Marathon Monday itself. With any luck, this year’s “Lemi” or “Galen” puppies will grow up to join the 10 percent of the nonprofit’s dogs that are trained to run, Panek said.
“Out of all of our extraordinary dogs, we have some who love to run,” Panek said.
Panek himself is running this year’s race with two (human) sighted guides. He also trained for the event with his personal guide dog, Gus, a yellow labrador, on distance runs of up to 10,000 kilometers, or roughly 6.2 miles.
This year will be the fourth time Panek has run the Boston Marathon. His personal record for the course is 3 hours and 42 minutes, which he set in 2015.
“I’m hoping for a PR [this year], but we’ll see,” he said.
According to Panek, several Guiding Eyes dogs who ultimately did not make it as guide dogs are now with Boston police and will be out there on race day helping to protect participants and observers.
Panek is running to raise money for Guiding Eyes. According to the nonprofit, it takes nearly two years and $50,000 to train one puppy to become a guide dog, though the dogs are provided to those in need free of charge. According to the group’s website, Guiding Eyes is otherwise funded solely by voluntary donations from friends and supporters.
One more puppy photo, because why not.
