Pottsgrove Dollars and a Senior Shows Her Grit

Photo by Evan Brandt

Pottsgrove High School senior Sarah Pennington with her service dog Daisy at Tuesday night's Pottsgrove School Board meeting.

Some important things happened at the Pottsgrove School Board meeting last night.

The board voted unanimously and enthusiastically to spend more than $700,000 on a new curriculum.

The facilities committee which met before the full board did and reviewed a study calling for $3.3 million worth of repairs needed at Pottsgrove Middle School, including a new roof.

There was a presentation about what the middle school is doing to prevent suicide, addiction and other behavior problems that seem to afflict people at a younger and younger age these days.

There was even discussion about the more than 9 percent increase in funding being sought for the Western Montgomery Career and Technical Center.

But mostly, I just want to tell you about Sarah Pennington and her service dog Daisy.

Some of you may remember the name from this story I wrote about the Pottsgrove senior in January, when she bravely presented a program to her peers about mental illness and talked about her disease -- trichotillomania, the compulsive pulling out of hair -- and her struggles with it and the accompanying mental strains.

Tuesday night, she introduced the school board to Daisy, her service dog which now accompanies her to school and will be accompanying her to college.

A rescue from Georgia, Sarah trained her through a program called "What a Good Dog." Daisy was certified a few weeks ago by Jeri Wagner at Bark Busters.

"Since I got Daisy, I got my driver's license, a car and a job," said Sarah.

She also got something else. A full scholarship to McDaniel College in Maryland.

"I was among about 20 students interviewed for their academics and I was in Canada and I got a call that I was one of four to get a full scholarship," said Sarah. "I think it had a lot to do with all my volunteer activity."

That was no doubt a factor. So congratulations to a young woman who has overcome, and continues to overcome, some daunting obstacles.

You can read about the rest of it in the Tweets below.