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| Linda and Sport |
My nine year old Labrador retriever, Sport, and I have been members of the Alliance of Therapy Dogs for the past two years. As a Therapy Dog Team, we volunteer our time greeting patients, visitors, and staff members at a hospital in Plant City, Florida. In addition to the visits made at the local hospital we visit a pediatric rehab center in Plant City, an assisted living facility in Zephyrhills, and the Lifepath Hospice House in Ruskin. Within 14 months of service, Sport and I completed over 200 site visits working with over a thousand adults and children. Sport’s main mission in life is to give pieces of his heart to those in need.
I wanted to give people something special to remember Sport and our visits. Creating a trading card with a photo of Sport and some fun facts would accomplish this goal. I love to take photos and Sport is one of my favorite models.
Using Microsoft’s PowerPoint I was able to create a trading card by changing the slide size to 4 inches by 6 inches. Then insert a photo and add some fun facts in a text box. The finished product is saved as a jpg file to be printed out in a photo format. For about ten cents per photo (sale price) I ordered 100 (4 x 6) copies in a matte finish. The photo prints look very professional. The reactions of those receiving Sport's card are priceless! I have given away over 1200 cards already and plan to continue distribution. In addition to Sport's card I created a Therapy Dog Trading Card for Dipaolo, Bonnie, and Pooch. These dogs and their handlers are active at the local hospital and members of the Alliance of Therapy Dogs.
Several people have asked me how they can create their own cards. I created a web site which includes a video tutorial and printed instructions for the process of making trading cards using PowerPoint. The web site explains why I created a Trading Card for my dog, Sport and there is a link to the Alliance of Therapy Dogs web page. As a retired teacher I wanted to take this ideas one step further. Students could create trading cards on many different subjects and ideas. My web site called “Trading Cards – Trading Knowledge” includes educational activities for the classroom. After submitting a proposal to the International Society for Technology in Education, I was invited to present a session on this topic for their conference in San Antonio, Texas on June 25 and Microsoft Education sponsored my presentation!
There were 22,000 people participating in this event. The feedback from those attending my session was very positive. The web site I created registered over 400 hits.
Below is a link to my blog which contains another link to the “Trading Cards – Trading Knowledge” web site: https://goo.gl/VN3kUE Please feel free to share this web site with others.
