Rita Doyle and Maverick
The CCA Shining Star Committee has selected Rita Doyle and Maverick as the 2022 Shining Star Ambassador Team.
Rita is an Army nurse who served our nation during the first Gulf War. At Rita’s side is Maverick, a five-year-old male sable Rough Collie. Maverick’s breeder is Melanie Adkins whose kennel is Adair Springs Collies of Kentucky. As a Hope Animal Assisted Crisis Response Team, Rita and Maverick were deployed to the Surfside Condo collapse in South Florida where they comforted families and first responders. The Kroger Supermarket chain paid for Rita and Maverick to comfort employees and families following the employee shootings near Memphis, Tennessee. The CFO of Kroger proclaimed that Maverick was a “Hero of Kroger” after witnessing Maverick’s ability to provide comfort. Rita and Maverick were deployed to the flooding Mississippi River at Waverly, Tennessee; the first team at the scene. Maverick and Rita comforted 1500 people over three days, 500 people per day. The Red Cross formally recognized Rita and Maverick for their extraordinary work at the Waverly flooding disaster.
> Read the full 2022 report (originally printed in the Summer 2022 CCA Bulletin)
