On Monday Nov. 11 Scholar Bowl and the Learning Commons will be sponsoring a hat day . Students will pay a dollar to wear a hat and all of the proceeds will go to an organization called

This Able Veteran. The organization provides service dogs, at no charge, to veterans who need them.

“It’s an awesome group to sponsor that helps veterans who need medical assistance,” Learning Commons sponsor Ann Travis said. “The dogs are trained to notice things that the veterans wouldn’t pick up on. The dogs are taught to learn warning signs of an attack that their owner may have.”

The organization works with the veteran, the dog, and the veteran’s doctor to make sure the veteran can have a normal life. Since the organization doesn’t get government funding they rely on donations and volunteers. Last year’s hat day made about $200 and FHN’s groups are hoping to make a lot more this year.

“For this hat day we took the time to get the fliers printed in color and we’re hoping to get people from art club to do cool artwork on the whiteboard outside of the Learning Commons,” Travis said.

Travis really wants to get the Francis Howell community involved and spread the word as much as possible. Her and her husband actually took one of their dogs in to get trained. There they met the CEO and founder of This Able Veteran who has been a professional dog trainer for the past 20 years. Travis plans to hand deliver the money earned from the hat day.

“They’ve touched our lives in a great way and we got all of this out of the love for our dogs,” Travis said.