The Petersons spent the past few months traveling the country with their Golden Retriever, Judge.
Judge was born with a birthmark that his owners Bryan and Veronica thought made him remarkable - and that's sparked a conversation with people about what makes them special.
Their journey is called the Remarkable Golden Tour and it's a way to inspire and uplift people all over America.
"We learned that there are truly remarkable people in our country," said Veronica Peterson of Reno. "We learned how kind people are and how supportive they are. We learned a lot about each other; we were together 24/7. We learned how hard it is to start a business and be an entrepreneur and we learned a lot about RV life so much."
To some, the whole idea seemed a little crazy.
"I was an attorney and I was really unhappy and I came home one day and said I'm going to quit my job; let's go all in on the Remarkable Golden and my husband goes, goes you're crazy. Then we told our friends and they said 'you're crazy.' But I'm happy and what we're doing is important.
People are encouraged to take pictures with Judge and really think about what makes them special. The photos are posted on social media.
"We meet people and ask them on the spot what makes you remarkable, and a lot of people are caught off guard because remarkable is a big word with heavy connotations," Veronica said. "So we give people the opportunity to think about it and so I'm in contact with these people for weeks and months. It gives them this really important reflection period to think about, what am I proud of myself about. We've had people brought to tears, saying that nobody has ever asked me this, we have people who share things like I've been to prison, I overcame addiction, they share really personal things about themselves and its really powerful."
The second leg of the journey will take the Petersons all over the East Coast and the South. They hope to talk to more students and youth groups on this part of the journey.
"We've gone to some schools here in Reno and we're going to make that our focus on this next trip," Veronica said. "We're going to as many schools and youth groups as possible and spreading our message to kids, and we're going to use that and appearance fees and blogging and Instagram to help fund our trip.
More information: https://www.theremarkablegolden.com/
