Hawke’s Bay teenager Jay Meeuwsen has dreamed of being a Police dog handler – and now she’s written, illustrated and published a book about herself and her fictional police dog Soldier.
Jay, 17, has mild cerebral palsy, which has an impact of her muscles and makes it hard for her to move properly, and an intellectual disability. But she is passionate about Police and in particular police dogs.
The book - Jay and Soldier the Police Dog - tells the story of Jay and Soldier on the trail of bank robbers and how they worked together to catch and arrest the offenders, with Solider receiving a medal and a juicy bone for his efforts.
Jay has met Hawke’s Bay Recruiting Officer Constable Gemma Hyde at a number of events and always comes up for a chat. She told Gemma about the book she had written, illustrated and published.
Knowing how much Jay loves Police, Gemma organised to visit Te Wahanga Ono Rau ‘600 Block’- the special needs unit at Havelock North High School, which Jay attends.
She took along Sergeant Laura Blummont, and Constables Israel Kairau and Luke Ona-Ariki, who were all excited to meet Jay and read her book.
Gemma says Jay’s schoolmates were also there and able to try on some of the uniform and see some of the tools police use. The team also answered lots of great questions from the students and teachers, and let Jay check out the police car.
The team presented Jay with a toy police dog and gave the class a copy of the Police whānau-friendly book The Wolf Was Not Sleeping by way of thanks.
Jay’s teacher aide Tracey Syrett says the visit was a real highlight for all the students, Jay in particular.
“I’ve never seen her happier," she says. "It was so special and meant the world to us and all our extra special students. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
