Press release
THE PLANET DOG FOUNDATION (PDF) AWARDS $750 GRANT TO OUR VOICE, INC.
Portland, ME (July 30, 2013) – The Planet Dog Foundation (PDF), Planet Dog’s nonprofit grant making organization, is proud to announce it has awarded a $750 grant to Our VOICE, Inc. The grant will be used to help establish a new therapy dog program to assist victims of rape and sexual assault.
Our VOICE, Inc., a nonprofit crisis intervention and prevention agency based in Asheville, NC, serves victims of sexual violence. The non-profit will use the PDF grant to establish the Healing Hounds Project to serve victims of sexual assault and their families in one on one and group therapy sessions. The new program will provide a certified therapy dog during counseling both at their offices and in community-based counseling sessions such as at the women’s prison facility.
The Planet Dog Foundation (PDF) is the philanthropic arm of Planet Dog, the globally recognized designer and developer of innovative, high-quality and award-winning dog products that enhance the lifestyle people share with their canine companions. Planet Dog is proud to donate 2% of all purchases of Planet Dog products to support exemplary canine service programs nationwide. Since 2006, PDF has given away more than 1 million dollars in cash and in-kind product donations!
PDF awarded over $71,000 in new grants to sixteen canine service organizations including Our VOICE, Inc. The PDF grants will help fund service dog, therapy dog and canine search and rescue programs across the country and support a wide variety of non-profit programs that are helping children and adults in need.
The additional new PDF grantees are: CAREing Paws of Georgia; Can Do Canines of Minnesota; Canines for Service of North Carolina; Compassionate Canines, Inc. of Wisconsin; FireK9.org of California; Gabriel’s Angels of Arizona; Home for Life of Wisconsin; Intermountain Search Dogs of Washington; Leader Dogs for the Blind of Michigan; Lollypop Farm of New York; Massachusetts Vest-A-Dog; Ohio Federation of K9 Search Teams; Paws Giving Independence of Illinois; Texas Hearing and Service Dogs; and Friends of Umpqua Valley Police K-9 Programs of Oregon.
“There is a great need for funding to support service dogs and the amazing ways they are helping children and adults,” says Kristen Smith, the Executive Director of the Planet Dog Foundation. “We received high caliber proposals from an overwhelming number of organizations and although we cannot fund all of them, we are proud to be able to donate over $71,000 in support of sixteen exceptional programs across the country,” adds Smith. To learn more about PDF and the programs the non-profit supports, visit www.planetdogfoundation.org.
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