Students at a local elementary school planned a special goodbye for a four-legged friend last month. Odd Job, the therapy dog at Nelson Elementary School, retired after seven years of service with a party and successful donation drive in his honor.
Valrico resident Leslie Winstead, who has worked as Nelson’s physical education teacher since 2005, adopted Odd Job when he was a few months old. After learning his personality, she decided to have him certified as a therapy dog, and seven years ago he began his work at Nelson.
“In the beginning of his therapy dog role, a select group of students would have a goal to work towards, whether it be academic, behavior or attendance,” explained Winstead. “If they worked hard during the week to achieve that goal, they would get to have one-on-one time with Odd Job.”
Over the years, he also made special classroom visits and joined Winstead’s P.E. classes.
“The students loved to have him join them for their class,” she said, “especially when we did soccer. Odd Job always stole a ball or two.”
Now that Odd Job is 13, Winstead felt that it was a good time to retire him from his therapy dog duties.
“His body doesn’t quite play like it used to. His health and ability to move as quickly as it once did has slowly declined,” she explained. “Some of our students have known Odd Job for the entirety of their elementary school life. I wanted the students to be able to say goodbye as a celebration of his job well done at Nelson. Not knowing how much time we have left with Odd Job, this was a perfect opportunity.”
Winstead’s goal was that the celebration was uplifting.
“We wanted our Nelson family to have a happy send off to our boy,” she said.
The whole school was involved in the ceremony, from pictures of Odd Job drawn by art students hanging on the fence by the sidewalk to students singing “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” to him. Principal Jason Pepe presented a plaque with Odd Job’s picture and words of gratitude for the work that he did for Nelson and Winstead prepared a slide show of Odd Job’s time at Nelson.
In conjunction with the party, Winstead and the school’s Anchored for Life Club coordinated a donation drive to the Pet Resource Center, where she adopted Odd Job 13 years ago. Representatives from the center attended the party and collected the donations.
“This is such a bittersweet time for me,” said Winstead. “Odd Job was definitely meant to be shared with everyone, and who better to share him with than the students at Nelson Elementary? He left his mark at Nelson and will be cherished and remembered by all.”
To learn more about the Pet Resource Center, visit https://hcfl.gov/locations/pet-resource-center. Nelson Elementary School can be reached at 813-651-2120.
