Madison High School Students rounded out Veterans Week with hearing Storyteller Robyn A. Rennick tell “A Marine and his War Dog” on Friday.  Based on the book, “Always Faithful” by Captain William W. Putney who was the line commander of the Third Dog Platoon in WWII, Ms. Rennick mesmerized the students on how a young man and a runty German Shepard became partners as they faced the war together.

Ms. Rennick is the Program Director of the Dyslexia Research Institute, now based in Port St. Joe, and the coordinator of the High School High Tech of Gulf County Club.  She was invited to MCHS by the Madison High School High Tech Co-Director and Future Leaders of America Advisor, Mike Radel.  They sponsored the event and over 100 high school students attended the story telling sessions.

The High School High Tech Club of Madison presented Ms. Rennick with a $200 check to use to help her HSHT group with their Bike and Trike Challenge.  In addition, some school supplies were also donated to help reduce the cost in replenishing supplies at her site.  Port St. Joe has been devastated by Hurricane Michael and so many families are left facing Christmas having lost everything.  The Gulf County HSHT club challenged all of the HSHT sites (42 of them) in the state to send a bike or a trike with a helmet to Port St. Joe for the Gulf County Sheriff’s Christmas Drive.  The Madison Group was the first HSHT group to participate.

Robyn Rennick has been telling stories since she could talk.  She began to turn them into stories in the 90s and reading to residents in a retirement center. Then she went to her first Storytelling Festival.  “I decided I could never read a story again.  I needed to “tell” them.”  Most of Robyn’s stories center on staying with her grandmother in Virginia every summer although she has branched out to telling other family tales as well.  Where does the family tale stop and the fabrication begin?  She’ll never tell but MCHS students sure enjoyed her story and her characters that she brought to life.