Theater’s technical director leads PPAWS for The Seeing Eye
SOMERS POINT — The Gateway Playhouse in Somers Point isn’t just a training ground for young actors, it’s a training ground for puppies to become service dogs.
Those dogs support people who are blind and with vision loss.
For the past three years, Gateway technical director Peter Avagliano has been training puppies, including his latest, Mars.
He is the leader of People and Puppies At Work for Sight. PPAWS is the pupping-raising organization in Atlantic and Cape May counties for The Seeing Eye.
The Seeing Eye, based in Morristown, partners people with Seeing Eye® dogs.
During rehearsals for Gateway’s current production, “9 to 5: The Musical,” the puppies were at the playhouse on leashes, mostly sitting quietly in the audience with their young handlers.
“At the theater, we are exposing the dogs to a dress rehearsal for the production of ‘9 to 5’ and this is a great experience for them because there’s lots of different sounds and sights and lights going on and off and a band playing,” Avagliano explained.
“Our dogs are expected to be calm during this whole process. They’re all puppies, so we don’t expect them to be perfect,” he said, “but it’s a good exposure for them because it will help to lead them to being calm and confident dogs in the future.”
PPAWS covers Cape May and Atlantic counties, but there are Seeing Eye® puppy-raising groups all across New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania.
Avagliano raises one puppy at a time. He has been doing that for 21 years. He was with Mars, a German shepherd puppy and his 18th charge. Avagliano was enticed into the program through his oldest daughter years back.
“She was looking for a project for her civics class in school, as well as some points for her Girl Scout Gold Award. She found The Seeing Eye organization and the puppy-raising program and got us started in it,” he said. “I have four children that have all helped to raise puppies over the years, but they are all grown and out of the house. I’m still raising dogs.”
Avagliano values the work that he does.
“To me, it’s very rewarding to know that I’m helping somebody. I never meet the people that we’re working with, but to know that my puppy might be guiding somebody all over the world, independently, is really rewarding,” he said.
Katie Calvi, chairwoman of the Gateway Playhouse Board of Directors, said the Gateway’s mission goes beyond providing affordable theater in southern New Jersey; it encompasses partnering with local non-profit organizations.
“What’s wonderful is we have this beautiful space. We’ve got all these wonderful people, but this is nobody’s day job. We’re all a group of volunteers,” she said during a dress rehearsal. “On stage right now, you have an anesthesiologist. Our tech director raises Seeing Eye® dogs.
“It’s just such a wonderful place to celebrate, not only each other and the projects that we do, but the humans and what we do on our off time,” Calvi said. “Peter has a really important job here. All the sets, all the sound, all the lights, he’s in charge of it all. But when he’s got some downtime, he is busy raising Seeing-Eye® dogs.”
For the past three years, he brought the puppy he was raising, but she suggested he didn’t have to be the only one.
“It’s just been a beautiful marriage of his hobby and my hobby coming together. It was really fun this summer when the kids were here, but we wanted to really launch and tell the public about it and couple it with ‘9 to 5,’ which is all about the working women, and these dogs are working too.”
Among the young trainers at the theater were Mia Boyer and Owen Loftus.
Owen, 12, of Cape May Court House, is raising Wisdom, a four-month-old yellow Labrador retriever.
“When my mom was talking about it before, she said she always wanted to do it,” Owen said. “We’ve had one puppy before Wisdom. This is our second one. He’s a friendly dog.”
Owen said his favorite part was taking the puppy to events.
Boyer just turned 18 and attends Seneca High School in Tabernacle. She has been raising puppies for The Seeing Eye since eighth grade.
“I love supporting my community and I love dogs,” she said, adding that there is a lot that goes into training, but she loves taking the puppies everywhere with her.
“I’m very popular when I have my dog out,” she said, smiling while holding the leash to a calm German shepherd pup named Jimmy. “It makes me have to talk to people.”
An added benefit is that The Seeing Eye provides a college scholarship to students who raise two dogs while in high school.
There is a downside.
“The hardest part about it would probably be having to give them back. It’s very hard to give them back,” Boyer said, “but knowing they’re doing something better and they not raised to be a pet is awesome.”
To learn more about the organization, Avagliano said PPAWS can be found on any social media site. To contact them, email PPAWSnj@comcast.net. Learn more about The Seeing Eye at seeingeye.org.
‘9 to 5: The Musical’
Don’t forget, the Gateway’s “9 to 5: The Musical” continues this week after opening Sept. 24. There are shows at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 1-3, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4. Go to gatewaybytheway.org for tickets.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
