Partners and Paws Summer 2020

Donor & Volunteer SPOTLIGHT

So here I am 4 ½ years later. I have now raised Hansen (he became a service dog), Oz (he decided he wanted to be pampered pet that gives lots of love to his family), Mitz (he’s in advanced training), and the latest pup is Teak. Most recently, I was invited to join the Saint Francis Board of Directors – again, jumping right in, without hesitation. During my time with Saint Francis, I have found the organization to be extremely well run by a very dedicated team of staff and volunteers. Everyone gives freely and generously of their time and knowledge for the purpose and benefit of raising our service dogs. Little did I know what a significant impact a service dog can make to someone until I started seeing how our dogs contributed to the wellbeing of their partners and improving the quality of their lives. There is still much I am learning about Saint Francis – our long term strategies, how our funding works, how we recruit new volunteers, the commitments we make to our partners and our dogs - the list goes on. One truly amazing and heartwarming aspect of Saint Francis that I discovered during my first year of puppy raising is that we give our fully trained dogs to our partners for free. We spend over two years to train a dog to be a certified service dog, and then, after appropriately “matching” the dog with partner, we give the dog away. We are able to do this because we have a very dedicated group of friends that contribute generously of their time and their money to our mission. The bond that so many of us have with our pets is what led me to become a part of Saint Francis. Whatever brings you to Saint Francis, thank you for being a part of the journey.

by Steve Strauss

During the summer before my 4th year of college at Hampden Sydney, I got my first dog (an English Setter) and tried to train her to be a bird dog. Well, she became a great pet and lived to be 16 years old. After our kids shed their diapers, we got our second dog – a Brittney Spaniel. She was a wonderful loving member of our family. After the kids graduated and moved out, Hershey passed after living the pampered life for 15 years.

Steve & Mitz | Heather Rousseau, The Roanoke Times, used with permission. Originally featured in “See a movie and learn about local service-dog nonprofit” by Dan Casey Lori and I talked about getting another dog, and we wrestled with the decision of having a 15 year commitment at this point in our lives. Then, through sheer luck, I stumbled upon Saint Francis Service Dogs. The idea of raising a puppy that had a higher calling just felt right, and I knew that the commitment would only be for about one year. With that, I jumped right in, and within 30 days of my first phone call, I found out that I would get a puppy to raise on January 5, 2016. Hansen, a sweet yellow lab, was handed over to me, and we embarked on a great journey where we trained one another. I learned so much about what a dog was capable of. In the beginning, I was not aware of the depth of the organization and the support I would receive with Hansen’s upbringing. I just jumped all in. And yes, they took a chance on me as well.

“The idea of raising a puppy that had a higher calling just felt right.”

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