A yellow Labrador helps teach children in an after-school program
One Saturday five years ago 28-year-old Andrew Mann drove his budget truck from Poplar Bluff, Missouri to Mott Haven. Ever since, the young minister has been overseeing the day-to-day activities at Graffiti “2” Ministries on Brook Avenue and East 141st Street.
If you ask those who live in the area about him, many will just say “Who?” But everyone will recognize his constant companion, a five-year-old golden yellow Labrador named Proof.
“I have strangers who come up and greet Proof by name, and I have no idea who they are,” says Mann.
Proof plays an important role in Mann’s ministry. Her calm and friendly presence makes her a great recruiter.
What’s more important, though, is her relationship with children.
Proof serves as an incentive to get kids to read, as a mediator who cools hot tempers and as a source of unconditional love for the children in the ministry’s after-school program.
“For kids who struggle to read, it’s good for them to read out loud,” explains Mann. So he sometimes has students read to Proof because they gain a level of comfort that reading aloud to an adult could never offer.
“Proof doesn’t judge. She doesn’t know the mistakes they are making while reading, and kids like that,” says Mann.
Mann also uses Proof’s presence as a way to comfort students who are angry or distraught. He often lets those students take care of the yellow Labrador.
“She has a very calming effect,” says Ashley Emmert, a native of San Antonio who works with the ministry. “It’s almost magical.”
Proof’s journey to Mott Haven is as long as her owner’s. Mann moved to New York to attend New York University as a music major. While honing his skills he worked with the East Seventh Baptist Church on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
There he met pastor Taylor Field, who headed the Graffiti Community Ministries. Field’s mentoring led Mann to change paths and study to become a minister. When he returned to New York from Wheaton College in Chicago, Field tapped Mann to start the next branch of the church’s Graffiti ministry program in Mott Haven.
“He caught me off guard,” says Mann. “I came up here one day and did a walk and prayed for the neighborhood. It was hot, all the fire hydrants were open and kids were playing in the spraying water.”
The large number of children in Mott Haven offered the possibility of developing a young strong ministry, Mann said. He organized a weeklong basketball camp, then formed an after-school program.
Proof’s role began as the brainchild of Mann’s sister, a school counselor in Missouri, who was considering bringing a therapy dog into her school. When Mann heard her idea he asked himself, “If they can have them in school, why not in an after-school program?”
He found a Kansas company called Cares Incorporated that trains service dogs with the help of inmates in a Colorado prison. It put him on a waiting list. Finally, in 2006 Mann flew to Kansas to take part in a weeklong training course to help the owner with his new dog.
When he describes his first meeting with Proof, Mann chokes up slightly. “I remember waiting and seeing the dogs come out one by one,” he said. “I would look and hope to see if the next dog was mine. Then when she came out–I know this is clichéd–but I knew it, I knew she was mine.”
Proof and the rest of her litter had been named using newspaper terms. Her siblings include “Ink” and “Lead,” Mann said.
She quickly proved her worth. Both Mann and Emmert describe Proof’s ability to evaluate a problem and find a solution.
“One time a child was screaming at the top of his lungs, interrupting the rest of the program and making it difficult for the other kids,” says Mann.
“With no cue from me, Proof got up and walked toward us. She walked right up to the kid and started licking his hands. Like a light switch being flipped off, he stopped screaming and started petting Proof. He was calm the rest of the day.”
“We call her the first missionary dog,” said Mann, smiling proudly, “For the kids, there’s few better examples in our natural world of God’s unconditional love than what comes through the presence of Proof.”
A version of this story appeared in the Summer 2010 issues of the Mott Haven Herald.
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