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Warwood School student Lily Tennant stands alongside the pet supplies the school collected for Samaritan for Pets. The organization redistributes the items to pets and their owners who need them.

WHEELING – Students at the Warwood School watched a limousine pull up to the school’s front doors Friday, and it came with the message to “treat pets like royalty.”

Warwood School and its “Viking Enterprises” workplace simulation groups have teamed up with Samaritan for Pets – a local organization seeking to help pets, and the people who have them.

On Friday, students help load into the limousine assorted pet supplies and items they collected for Samaritan for Pets. Among these were homemade dog treats baked up by student Lily Tennant.

Principal Joey Subasic said the students looked to their families, the community, the teachers and staff at the Warwood School to bring in the pet items.

The school’s “hospitality” workplace simulation group was involved in getting out the word, while marketing students worked with advertising and graphic arts students to produce fliers promoting their effort.

Subasic said the school does an animal item collection every year, but that this was the first time they had partnered with Samaritan for Pets – which is a newer organization in the area.

Warwood School and Samaritan for Pets will partner again for a vendors’ market fundraiser this spring.

Samaritan for Pets was founded by Ken Suter following the death of his terrier-mix canine friend Sam. Suter found himself in grief counseling over his pet’s passing, and he later realized he needed to find a way to honor Sam’s memory if he was to move forward.

“I want to give people a piece of Sam through me and my actions, and show people what his love and personality was like,” Suter said. “I can only do this by doing fantastic things, and heartwarming things.”

Among other things, Samaritan for Pets helps fund pet adoptions in need of animal friends.

“Not only do we help them adopt that pet, we help them through the life of that pet,” he said.

This could include getting them discounts for pet supplies, and even contractor’s work and auto repair.

He also wants to establish a medical fund, and also “Sam’s Army” to assist the pets and their owners. These would be volunteers who would come to a pet owner’s home to help them with such chores as cutting grass.

And when the pet eventually dies, the family will get a “rainbow bridge” ride in the limousine to their pet’s memorial service.

“We want to make them feel like they’ve lost royalty, because we know they’ve lost royalty,” he said.

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