Seven Lakes students sponsor landmine-detection dog

A German Shepherd named Spartacus will soon ship out to Sri Lanka to sniff out landmines, thanks to the fundraising efforts of Seven Lake High School students.

Members of the school's Interact Club worked throughout this past school year to raise $20,000 to pay for the dog's training.

"It just seemed like a really amazing opportunity for our students to get involved in something that would really and truly have an impact on the lives of people in countries that most of them will probably never visit," says Jessica Postlethwaite, who sponsors the club along with fellow Seven Lakes teacher Angele Fowler. The students picked this project after the director of anti-landmine organization CHAMPS visited the school in October.

The organization says that about 1,000 people per month are injured or killed when they accidentally set off forgotten landmines, often in third-world countries.

"The students just really responded to this problem," Postlethwaite says. "We can never conceive of not being safe enough to walk outside our house, or to walk to school."

The fundraising included selling baked goods and T-shirts, and holding a "Dog Days of Spring" event, in which people came and walked laps with their dogs. Support also came from local businesses, and students from Morton Ranch High School and Dulles High School.

"We got a really huge portion of the student body involved in the actual fundraising," Postlethwaite says. "At least half the student body bought something from us at one time or another."

Spartacus is currently in training at a facility in Somerset, near San Antonio. "When the dogs are done training, they can detect, I think, something like 14 different explosive odors, and can scent it in as little as a grain of sand," Postlethwaite says.