K9 Ambassador Rico and MLI Team Visit Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

K9 Ambassador Rico traveled to Pittsburgh, PA, to visit St. Edmund's Academy with Development and Communications Manager - Eden Slater, and Educational Programs Director - Anne Wooleyhand. We are grateful to St Edmund's Teachers, Marian Lien and Kirsten Mahoney, for organizing two days of amazing events. It was a blast to visit different parts of the city and take advantage of great photo opportunities.

From left: (1/2) Rico admires the Pittsburgh Northshore, (3) Rico enjoys a Pittsburgh staple - "Primanti Brothers," (4) Rico and Anne give homage to Mr. Rogers

Day 1: Anne attended the St. Edmund's Chapel Meeting, while Eden and Rico explored the Squirrel Hill Neighborhood. During the Chapel meeting, Anne gave a speech about the importance of maintaining a lifelong learning mindset. The St. Edmund's 8th-grade student leader also shared his thoughts about lifelong learning, before a wonderful chorus of music, where the entire student body showed amazing school spirit, singing their alma mater. That afternoon, Eden, Rico, and Anne presented how a puppy becomes a mine detection dog to a group of younger students. Rico aced his sniffing demonstration - finding the "landmine," and the kids loved petting him as they left for their next class. For the last stop at St. Edmund's, the crew visited the pre-K class. The little ones were so gentle and sweet with Rico.

That evening, the MLI team visited with the local Boy Scout group. The scouts engaged in a presentation about landmines, including where they are located, their impact, the economics of landmines, and how they are removed using machinery, technology, and mine detection dogs.

Day 2: The MLI team had the honor of attending St. Edmund's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Symposium. What an incredible demonstration of the power of youth! Every grade at St. Edmund's Academy participated in a service learning project to address one or more of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. The highlight of the event for the MLI Team was seeing the in-person presentation from the 7th-grade class who had participated in MLI's Peace Through Sport (PTS) virtual exchange program with Yemen. For their service learning project, this group of students addressed food insecurity and food waste. A cause that was made very relevant in their community after a recent onset of violent storms that caused significant damage.

Another highlight of the symposium was seeing one of the former PTS round students present his 7th-grade capstone project. This impressive young man, and recreational fencer, created and is currently implementing a program to recycle used fencing sword blades to raise money. The proceeds are then used to make the sport of fencing more accessible to young people in the Pittsburgh area. To top off an incredible day, the team met a new friend - Mirsada, a Bosnian native who fled Sarajevo during the Bosnian War in the 1990s. Mirsada now lives in the Squirrel Hill area of Pittsburgh and was excited to meet Rico and learn about his heroic work in her home country of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Clockwise from left: (1) MLI staff attend the SDG presentation, (2) Anne presents on the importance of service learning, (3) 7th Grade PTS students present their project on food insecurity, (4) 8th Grade students share their SDG projects, (5) 7th Grade PTS student shares his fencing recycling project, (6) Rico meets his new friend Mirsada

Thank you, St. Edmund's, the Boy Scouts of America, and the Squirrel Hill community for an excellent visit to Pittsburgh! Your support helps create a better future free of landmines.