Circle Tail partners with Comet Zone to sponsor homecoming festivities

Libby Pullen | The Chronicle

Graphic by Coco Meng

In a collaboration that exhibits community and service, Mason High School (MHS) teamed up with Circle Tail, an organization that trains specially skilled service dogs, to sponsor the homecoming football game shirts.

As MHS geared up for homecoming this year, students dressed in shirts featuring the Circle Tail logo. The school facility dog, Hibbs, is a proud graduate of Circle Tail and these shirts were made with him in mind. The Comet Zone partnered with Circle Tail to bring awareness to the professional training and partnership of highly skilled service dogs. 

Comet Zone General Manager Allison Kobalka said the Comet Zone chose Circle Tail as the main shirt sponsor for the homecoming game to support the benefits that could result from this partnership. 

“We chose Circle Tail because I feel like all of the work that the service dogs do for our school goes unnoticed,” Kobalka said. “We thought it would be cool to be able to give back to the organization that we were able to get Hibbs from, and we hope to help their organization get the recognition they deserve.”

Circle Tail provides many other businesses and schools with specially trained dogs such as Hibbs and the Mason Middle School service dog, Colby. Since the organization does so much for the community, Kobalka said they deserve to be acknowledged for all the hard work they do.

“It’s important because they help different schools and other people acquire service dogs, which is huge in issues such as mental wellness,” Kobalka said.

Kobalka said besides giving recognition to Circle Tail, the Comet Zone hopes to show the Mason community the importance of having a specially trained animal in schools.

“I think having Circle Tail as our main homecoming shirt sponsor will bring awareness of this organization to everyone in the community,” Kobalka said.

The other mission the Comet Zone has is to help Circle Tail flourish and continue its mission for years to come. Being a smaller business, Circle Tail has some financial struggles. 

“We’re donating 1,000 dollars to Circle Tail in hopes of allowing them to continue to grow and keep doing the good they’ve been doing and show appreciation for the impact they’ve had on our school,” Kobalka said.

MHS administrative assistant Kristen Day is one of Hibbs’ handlers. Day said Hibbs’ presence is important due to his calming effect on students.

“I’ve seen the impact when kids are struggling emotionally and having some feelings that they need to process,” Day said. “He’s a great tool for our school [for] kids [to] de-stress from what they’re going through.”

Being an administrative assistant, Day sees all students and helps manage issues they may have. Alongside her administrative role, she spends a lot of time with Hibbs, and watching interactions between students and Hibbs. 

“I see how much the students love him just from having him out in the hallways, and kids love to stop and pet him,” Day said.

Day also describes how Hibbs can raise awareness for students with disabilities and show the impact service dogs can have on a school community.

“I think that Hibbs has absolutely raised awareness for kids with disabilities, or kids that are just dealing with mental illness, or kids that need a space where they can process what they’re feeling, even if it’s not a disability or an illness,” Day said. “Hibbs serves multiple purposes here at the high school, and I think that he’s played a pivotal role in helping kids deal with the things that they have to go through on a daily basis.”

School psychologist Jeff Schlaeger is also a handler for Hibbs. Schlaeger said having a service dog has improved student lives more than he’s ever witnessed before.

“I think when people are grieving or going through a loss experience, it’s nice having this well-trained, supportive animal to be able to use as a resource,” Schlaeger said.

Schlaeger said Hibbs has helped him take care of students in the best way possible, allowing Schlaeger to accomplish his goals as a school psychologist.

“I think my number one goal in my time here is [that] I’ve tried to lower the stigma of even talking about psychology and mental health,” Schlaeger said. “[I also want to] level the playing field [and] advocate for others.” 

Schlaeger said he believes service dogs like Hibbs are wonderful tools for either mental health or aiding in cultural purposes such as ending stigmas of judging people with disabilities or mental health issues.

“I think now having more awareness and more tools, whether it’s Hibbs, whether it’s Hope Squad, many other tools and areas we bring into that has made my job happier,” Schlaeger said. “It’s not like 20 years ago with me and one or two other people in mental health. Now to see all of these different tools we have, that’s really cool to see.”

The Comet Zone teaming up with Circle Tail this year shows the school’s support of Hibbs and everything service dogs do for our school and our students. As well as supplying MHS with Hibbs, Circle Tail continues to raise awareness for the importance of service dogs.

“I know that Circle Tail is in constant contact [with Hibbs] throughout the year, and just checking in with Hibbs,” Day said. “I think Hibbs does an annual visit with Circle Tail, just to make sure he is doing well and is serving his role at the high school to the best of his ability.” 

As well as following up with Hibbs throughout the year, Circle Tail is an important resource for service dog advocacy. Advocacy for other service dogs like Hibbs, who holds such a significant title at MHS, is crucial right now, due to the increase of service dogs in schools, and in the community.

“I think [The Comet Zone] wanted to get behind an organization that has supported the high school [by bringing] something new to Masonwith Hibbs,” Day said.” “They wanted to branch out and do something a little different than they have done in the past.” 

Every year, the Comet Zone designs shirts to wear to the homecoming game, and every year they choose a different sponsor to go on the front of the shirt, one that holds significant value for our school.

“We’re so glad we had the opportunity to work with such an amazing organization like Circle Tail,” Kobalka said. “It’s been a fun process to bring awareness [to] such a cool organization.”