By Melanie Petrucci, Senior Community Reporter
Shrewsbury – Finnegan (Finn), a hypoallergenic Australian Labradoodle and certified therapy dog, provides students at Shrewsbury High School (SHS) with a dose of stress relief during lunch hours every Thursday. With a very gentle and sweet demeanor, he is making a difference.
Finn’s visits are made possible through the Capstone Exhibition project of SHS senior Colleen Keohane. She has had an interest in therapy dogs and made this the basis for her Capstone project.
“It’s a year-long senior project to do something you are passionate about and so I wanted to bring a therapy dog team into the school to promote well-being for students,” she stated.
When asked what the response from her peers has been, Keohane replied, “I’ve met with a bunch of students and they are really excited to be taking this break and taking this time to meet with Finn and the teachers are really excited to have an outlet that they can send students to or even themselves for relief.”
Shared student Charlie Heffernan: “I would say that Finn’s being here is entirely positive. It’s great to have a therapy dog here that we are able to really relax around. There are a lot of stresses related to being a student and I think having a therapy dog can be really calming.”
Finn lives in Shrewsbury with his owners/handlers Paula and Gerald Brady, who are certified and insured through Therapy Dogs International.
“We also go to Westborough High School, Paton School in Shrewsbury and we are going to start going to Sherwood Middle School,” Gerald shared. “We also go to UMass Memorial on Wednesdays and we visit different clinics…He is getting national notoriety in medical journals.”
Keohane added that on any given Thursday, typically about 30 students sign up to interact with Finn. She also said that Finn will continue to visit through the end of the school year.
For more information about Finn, follow him on Instagram @finneganthetherapydog.