Strong Community Support
Helps PAWS Program Grow
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On Thursday afternoons, Lori Johnson and Ranger can be spotted in the hallways of the medical and surgical units. This team has been visiting since the beginning of August. During their time at CGRMC, Lori and Ranger have been assisted by two other volunteers, Vivian Cox and Birdie McLaughlin, who serve as greeters/photographers during patient visits. Lori became interested in the program when she read about it in Grande Living magazine. She contacted the hospital and immediately pursued testing and membership with Therapy Dogs, Inc. Lori is a dedicated volunteer, also serving for the past two and a half years in the dog adoptions program at the Arizona Humane Society Campus for Compassion. She is currently assisting that shelter with rescue efforts from the hurricanes in the Gulf Coast region. Several weeks ago, Arizona Air National Guard delivered 170 dogs from New Orleans to the Campus for Compassion. Volunteers like Lori moved the dogs through the process of triage, microchipping and listing them on a national database so that owners can locate them. These dogs are now being boarded at vet’s offices and boarding facilities throughout the Valley. The hope is that many of these animals will be reunited with their families. A hundred more dogs will arrive this week.
Our newest therapy team, Lisa Hatch and Bailey, will visit patients on Friday afternoons. Lisa is a college student and substitute teacher with a lifelong interest in animals. In the past, Lisa volunteered at Camelot Therapeutic Horsemanship in Scottsdale as a teacher's assistant providing riding lessons for the physically handicapped. She also volunteered in 2003 at the Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado under an Equine veterinarian. In addition to bringing Bailey to the hospital, Lisa takes Bailey to Cottonwood Elementary School on Friday mornings for a literacy program. The children take turns reading to Bailey in an effort to increase fluency and encourage them to love reading. Bailey is actually owned by Lisa’s parents who live in Phoenix. Because Bailey is so well suited for this type of work, Lisa made the commitment to pick Bailey up in Phoenix on Thursday evenings,groom her early Friday morning and then volunteer all day Friday at the school and hospital before returning her home on Friday evenings.
The program’s first therapy dog, Makenzi, continues to bring joy to patients each week on Monday afternoons with her owners Jacqui and Weymouth Fogelberg. As of this week, Jacqui is now authorized to serve as a Tester/Observer for Therapy Dogs, Inc. This allows Jacqui to test dogs for membership right here in Casa Grande, rather than sending them to Mesa for testing. Ultimately, the hope is that this will make it easier for more dogs to enter the program. At the September Auxiliary Board Meeting, Jacqui, Weymouth and Makenzi each received volunteer pins recognizing them for 200 hours of service. Makenzi also celebrated her 11th birthday this month.
On September 2, 2005, “PAWS” with Dogs received a $1,000 grant from the Casa Grande Wal-Mart Super Center. This donation will help the program to continue to grow as more dogs are accepted into the program. A $500 grant from the Casa Grande Wal-Mart Distribution Center in July 2005 allowed the program to purchase Polaroid film so that patients may have their picture taken with the therapy dog as a memento of the visit. The $2,500 grant from the Safeway Foundation in May 2005 made possible the purchase of photo frames, as well as the cart that Makenzi rides on during her visits.
“PAWS” with Dogs is always looking for additional volunteers. Volunteers can be utilized both to handle dogs and to work with a team to take photos and record statistics. Karen Kerr-Osman, coordinator of the program, states, “We are so excited by the growth of the program in the first six months. The community has been extremely generous and receptive by providing funding for the program through grants by our local Wal-Mart and Distribution Center, as well as the Safeway Foundation. Even more importantly, our patients and visitors really enjoy the visits, and the staff doesn’t seem to mind seeing the dogs either! Of course, this program would not be possible without volunteers. We especially thank our dog handlers, photographers and dogs for their commitment of time each week.”
For more information on “PAWS” with Dogs, contact Karen at (520) 381-6571 or at kkerr-osman@cgrmc.org.
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Casa Grande Regional Medical Center
1800 E. Florence Blvd
Casa Grande, AZ 85222
Phone: (520) 381-6300
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