One day, Saline freshman Elizabeth Foley may very well change the world.

Her little corner of it, at least.

A recent recipient of the Prudential Spirit of Community Award, which recognized her as one of Michigan’s top youth volunteers of 2003 for a program she developed to teach fellow students about the world of the visually impaired, Elizabeth has set course on a new undertaking.

One that is as ambitious as it is noble.

Christened the Isobel Puppy Project, Elizabeth intends to raise $25,000 for the Michigan nonprofit organization Leader Dogs for the Blind.

Sitting at her dining room table, wearing a T-shirt that reads "Love makes the world go round," 15-year-old Elizabeth pulls out a blue binder stuffed with letters, notes, and sketched plans for the project.

"What I want to do is essentially raise enough money to send one puppy to leader dog college," she says.

That puppy is 12-week-old Isobel, who is being raised right now by Saline resident Ann Bowman and will head for training at Leader Dogs for the Blind in Rochester early next year.

Elizabeth came up with her idea after taking a tour of the Leader Dog training facility, where she learned that it cost $25,000 to raise a leader dog from birth through graduation with their new partner.

"I didn’t realize how much work, time and effort the facility put into every dog," she says.

After traveling to Washington, D.C., where she received her Prudential Spirit of Community award and met other volunteer-minded students, Elizabeth returned home, her mind brimming with ideas and possibilities.

"She was greatly inspired after her trip to D.C.," says her mother. "It really got her thinking."

In July, she contacted the Lions Club to see if they would be interested in sponsoring the Isobel Puppy Project.

They were, providing her a mailing address, and Elizabeth was off and running, writing letters to local businesses to solicit donations.

In addition to seeking contributions for Isobel’s "education" from area businesses, she hopes to launch offshoots within the schools such as a "Links of Love" program that would involve students buying paper links and creating a chain or "Pennies for Puppies," which would have elementary students donating change.

"I want to inspire youth volunteerism, too," Elizabeth says, adding that she envisions her programs not so much as fundraisers but as learning projects that teach leadership, communication, and teamwork.

"I want to show other kids that there are so many things you can do. You can work with people or with animals or anything."

Elizabeth knows her goal is ambitious, but she is determined to achieve it.

"I’d like to get it done by the end of the year," she says, "but I’m going to keep going until I get it."

And then it is up to Isobel, who stands a forty-percent chance of becoming a leader dog, according to her "foster" parent, Bowman, who is raising her fifth puppy for the program.

"It’s a real commitment to do this," Bowman says, in her soft Georgia accent. "It’s not hard work, but it takes real commitment."

As a puppy raiser, she is primarily charged with Isobel’s socialization. During the year she has Isobel, Bowman will take the young dog with her everywhere: to church, restaurants, grocery shopping, malls. Everywhere.

Leader dogs must be people friendly, she says. They must be healthy, non-aggressive and cannot be shy. Hip dysplasia is the number one reason a dog fails to become a leader dog, she says.

Bowman originally named her new pup Hannah, but she learned quickly enough that that didn’t fit, she says.

"When this pup was brought home, let me tell you," she says of the tan-colored lab whose nails clatter across the kitchen tile as she pulls on her leash, trying to catch a boxelder bug, "this one was a hurricane from the moment she came in the door."

So she changed her name to Isobel after the hurricane that was then threatening to strike the east coast.

It fits.

After their year together, Bowman will hand Isobel over to Leader Dogs for the Blind for intensive guide dog training.

"It’s tough to give up your baby, your dog," says Bowman, who keeps a separate photo album for each of the dogs she has reared, "but not when you realize where they’re going."

The first dog she raised was placed with a partner in Mexico City; the third is in Madrid, Spain; her fourth graduates later this month; and her second, the only one so far not to graduate as a leader dog, is an arson dog with an insurance company.

"I would have to say it is one of the more satisfying things I’ve done," Bowman says.

Holding a squiggling Isobel, Elizabeth says she knows she will achieve her goal of raising the pup’s tuition.

"You can’t get discouraged by anything," she says with Isobel licking her face. "You have to keep going. You have to convince yourself you can do it."