Telling Iowa's Stories: Our Recent Cedar Rapids Features

♪♪ [Dog Trainer] I want you to practice now on saying no because sometimes, you've got to think about it, the people that we serve, they may not be able to hear a person ask if they can pet their dog or we might have someone with PTSD who really doesn't want anybody touching their dog.

And so, we want the dogs to be able to have somebody approach them and say hey, can I pet your dog?

And you are like, no thank you, not right now.

Or you can just say no and keep walking.

[Nebbe] Support animals such as service dogs are becoming increasingly common.

Trained with specialized skills, service dogs are frequently employed to help with disability support for issues such as mobility or PTSD.

But, that's only the beginning of what they're capable of.

[Lorette Vanourny] We're Deafinitely Dogs, obviously, D-e-a-f for Deafinitely.

We started out in the hearing dog world.

But their technology is so good, it has just gotten better and better and better.

So, we don't get as many requests for hearing dogs as we do for PTSD.

[Sherry Steine-Ross] Yes, there's cochlear implants, there's hearing aids, but you take all that out at night and you can no longer hear.

Think about how scary that is.

Someone could be banging down your door and you wouldn't hear it.

So, you have the dog to alert you to your sounds again.

♪♪ [Lorette Vanourny] So, our hearing dogs are those dogs that can keep playing the game, they can come alert you and take you to the sound and that is really reinforcing to them.

Like hey, I heard it, I'm going to come get you.

I'm going to take you to it.

(alarm sounds) [Bridget] Oh, good boy!

[Bridget Eischeid] Rudy is my hearing alert service dog.

I actually have what is called reverse slope hearing loss.

It's where I hear high pitches really well, but low tones like men's voices or something are more difficult for me to hear.

He will use his nose to nudge me and let me know that that sound is happening.

And there's certain sounds, like my first name, that I can even say show me and he would go to the person that is saying the name.

He definitely is my best friend.

He's my soul dog.

I've loved every dog that has ever been in my life, but Rudy is just very, very special.

[Nebbe] Rudy is a Deafinitely Dogs graduate.

Raised and trained in Cedar Rapids, Rudy now lives with Bridget, a Kansas City area teacher and track coach originally from northwestern Iowa.

While not as common, hearing alert service dogs like Rudy are still out there keeping their handlers safe and alerting them to sounds that might be missed.

[Bridget Eischeid] So, actually I was just scrolling through social media and something popped up about a hearing alert service dog.

And I literally was like, what?

That's a thing?

And then I came across Deafinitely Dogs on the Internet and I contacted them.

And I went to Cedar Rapids and that is when I met Rudy.

And honestly, it was love at first sight I think for both of us.

[Sherry Steine-Ross] So, the idea of a service dog is to enable you, not enable your disability.

So, we want the dogs to be able to enhance their lives and give them more independence, not make them more dependent for things that they can already do for themselves.

[Bridget Eischeid] And I think that's one of the important parts is he gives me back my independence.

He's been to Arrowhead Stadium, he's been to Royals games, he's been to a Snoop Dogg concert.

I guess that is the one tradeoff for having a disability, that's the advantage is I get to have this awesome best friend with me to help me through my day.

[Lorette Vanourny] Over here we're going to go through the TSA type training that we did.

So, this is our fake TSA.

[Sherry Steine-Ross] Service dogs, first of all, they take two to two and a half full years to train.

All of our dogs get to grow up and tell us what they love to do and enjoy doing for work and then they also get to pick their human.

That is one thing that we excel at, at Deafinitely Dogs, is we want to make sure that our dogs are happy, healthy working dogs and that they want to be with the person that they're going to spend the next, their entire lives with 24/7.

[Nebbe] While Deafinitely Dogs started with hearing alert service dogs, the highest ambition of its dog training is that of the PTSD service dog matched with a veteran.

In more than a decade of training dogs, only the dogs with the best health, behavior and temperaments have achieved this goal.

[William Henk] I was kind of referred here through the VA going through a bit of a rough patch in my life.

One of them just suggested looking into service dogs.

I told them that I had always wanted a dog for a long time and they kind of pointed me towards a service dog organization.

But coming here and being able to train my own service dog, which I did with Dory, and kind of build up a good relationship with her, for the past five years I think the longest we've ever been separated is about two days.

So, she is with me constantly with I go to work, when I got to sleep, when I wake up.

It really did wonders, I suppose.

[Lorette Vanourny] They've got a great job, they get to be with their person all the time, every day.

Every dog wishes they could do that almost.

But when that cape comes off, I want you to turn into a dog.

I want you to dig holes.

I want you to roll in the grass.

Be a dog.

[Bridget Eischeid] We're together all of the time.

I absolutely love him.

And I know it's mutual.

He tells me all of the time.

Even here at school there will be days where the bell will ring and the kids will be dismissed.

Teachers will come through the door and they'll be like, I'm not here for you, I just need to see Rudy for a second.

I mean, Rudy might be an animal, but he's also like my best friend.

He just makes me happier.

He just makes every day better.

[Sherry Steine-Ross] I always just say how blessed I am to be able to have a moment in the life with these amazing people, both our veterans and our applicants who put in the work to get a dog.

They are just amazing people who deserve the right to live an independent life.

And the fact that I can be part of that, it's a gift.

♪♪

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Nestled on the eastern edge of Cedar Rapids, the Indian Creek Nature Center offers road trippers a chance to step off the beaten path and explore Iowa's natural landscape.

[Ana McClain] The nature center is a very special place for us here in Cedar Rapids.

It's like a private nature reserve that is open to the community.

It looks to preserve the natural landscape of the area and also provide education opportunities for different types of groups.

♪♪ [Ana McClain] It's a great place to be connected with nature.

[John Myers] Indian Creek Nature Center sits on 500 acres of land and we have over 7 miles of trails on the property that connect to the entire trail system of the Cedar Rapids metro area.

When you come to the nature center you can do everything from hiking to play in our outdoor classroom.

It's a great place for kids and families but also adults who want to come out and bird watch or enjoy time interacting in nature.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Indian Creek became the state's first nature center in 1973, founded with the goal to get people outside.

Today, its mission has grown, serving as a hub for outdoor education and a model for land restoration and conservation.

[John Myers] I really enjoy getting outside on the peaceful, quiet trails.

The opportunity to connect with nature while hiking through the woods, seeing the lovely tree cover is just a magical experience.

I love looking over here.

There's a pond and there's frogs sometimes there and it's just very relaxing to just come and listen.

My kids love the bird watching room.

They love trying to identify the birds that come to the bird feeder.

[John Myers] Ultimately, people enjoy coming to the nature center not only for the trails and the property, but for finding different things to do, to learn and engage with the outdoors and to become better stewards of the environment.

♪♪ [Ana McClain] Being here is kind of like taking a deep breath.

It's very calm.

You can see the deer.

It's just so beautiful.

♪♪

At the southern edge of Downtown Cedar Rapids rests the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library, a local crown jewel to anyone of Czechoslovakian heritage.   But its visitors will quickly find its modern inspiration rests right outside its doors in the Czech Village. Still, without the Czech and Slovak people immigrating to the area, carrying their history and culture with them, neither the Museum nor the Czech Village would exist. Cecillia Rokusek: Czechs that came to America primarily settled in the Midwest but a lot of them came to Ohio, they came to Chicago or Illinois, they came to Iowa, a lot came to Iowa. Cecillia Rokusek: So the Czechs really kind of settled in the Midwest and down South, a little bit to Texas, a lot of them in Texas.   The Slovaks on the other hand went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania overall, they went to Cleveland, a lot of them in Cleveland and some went to Chicago.   So you had a different sort of migration pattern. And so we are bringing it all together here.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Susie Murray: So ballroom dancing is just something that you can actually do with somebody else anywhere you go, anywhere you travel.

So it's something that you can use all the time and that is what people really enjoy about it.

♪♪ ♪♪ Susie Murray: I teach private lessons, I teach group classes and then I teach the college kids.

I've taught kids.

I think the oldest person I ever taught, I taught her until she was 93.

So yeah, and she was an amazing dancer, she was amazing.

♪♪ Susie Murray: There's called ballroom dances, so those are the smooth dances that travel around the floor.

So it would be like waltz, tango, fox trot, Viennese waltz, quick step, those kind of dances.

So they are smooth, gliding across the floor, big long dresses.

♪♪ Susie Murray: Then you would go to faster dances or what we call rhythm dances.

Just because they are more stationary dances they don't use as much space.

So cha-cha, rumba, swing, salsa, merengue.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Susie Murray: Either they want to come and have fun, they want a night away from their kids, a night out to do something and have fun.

Or some of them just want something that they can do together that is in common that they both like and enjoy.

♪♪ Susie Murray: Some people do it for the exercise because it's a great way to get exercise and have fun at the same time instead of the treadmill or something.

Special events is a big one.

So a lot of people come in for weddings.

And so we do choreography for their first dance.

Forward, forward, forward, side.

Nice.

♪♪ So now, swing.

Okay?

It's been a little while since we did swing.

Do you remember swing?

So triple step, triple step, rock, step.

♪♪ Angela Buswell: Swing is our favorite.

It's just fast, it's upbeat, you're constantly moving.

There's a lot of just fun movements to it in a lot of different variations.

We've learned so many different variations of it.

And wherever you go, whether you go to a wedding or just out to the bars or something like that, there's always music that you can apply it to.

So it's just kind of more universal and can be used every time.

♪♪ Susie Murray: We always have goals for each student of what it is that they want to get to or do.

We work on kind of people's balance.

As people kind of get older they get more unsteady, especially in the winter.

A lot of people come in that time of year because they're worried about slipping and falling and that kind of stuff.

So we work on kind of their grace and their poise and how to present themselves.

Quick, quick, turn in.

So we go back on the left-- Susie Murray: And I think just other people sometimes they're super clumsy and super just awkward.

And so then it's kind of getting those people to a different level.

I definitely have done that with some of my guys.

Getting them to acknowledge that now they're actually dancers and people that always want to, everybody wants to dance with them now because they are so graceful and so smooth.

And so I think it's just changing the perception of how people see people.

♪ Do you believe in magic in a young girl's heart?

♪ ♪ How the music can free her whenever it starts ♪ ♪ And it's magic ♪ Mathew Cover: The song kind of inspires me usually the theme I want to put under the songs.

You can make it goofy, you can make it serious.

There's a lot more to it than just learning how to do the steps.

There's a lot of being an actor or actress and playing a role almost.

It's a part of me that I hadn't really ever explored prior to learning how to do ballroom and that has been really fun for me.

How'd it go?

Woo-woo!

Okay, music time.

Music, maestro!

Here we go!

♪♪ Susie Murray: So the leader is going to be the person who is going to decide what you're going to do step wise or around the floor.

So you have to, as a follower you have to be able to relax and not try to guess what they're going to do.

♪♪ Susie Murray: And it's a nice stress reliever because you can just dance and everything just kind of goes because I don't have to think about anything.

I can just enjoy the moment that I'm having with whoever I'm dancing with.

♪♪ Susie Murray: I love it.

Each day is never the same and it's always a new adventure and I love that about dance because there's always more and there's never an end.

♪♪