Canine Companions, a nationwide organization that provides service dogs at no charge to people with disabilities, hold its grand opening in Mathews on Saturday at its new field office—the historic 220-acre Eastbrooke Estate given to the group in 2022 by the Helen and Murray Main Foundation.
The event, attended by around 150 invited guests, was filled with inspiring stories, service dog demonstrations, and a bevy of people in wheelchairs accompanied by their devoted canines.
Paige Mazzoni, CEO of Canine Companions, traveled from California to participate in the event, which coincided with the organization’s 50th anniversary. She said the new facility is an important part of the group’s future because not only will it support puppy raisers, thus helping to “get more service dogs to more people more quickly,” but also its location is close to a significant population of veterans, and “they are always an important part of what we do.”
“In this little spot of heaven, we can do more outreach,” she said. “In the next 50 years, we have to end the wait list. It’s really hard to tell people we know can benefit from our dogs that they have to wait two years, or three years.”
Mazzoni said that the organization’s volunteer puppy raisers are part of an ongoing partnership that “spreads this ripple of amazing good.” She recognized the Helen and Murray Main Foundation, which had a number of board members present, not only for the initial gift, but for additional contributions, as well.
Speaking as a recipient of a service dog from Canine Companions was U.S. Army Major Vincent Cerchione, who received his first service dog, Taco, in 2017, and his current dog, Cece, last year after Taco passed away.
Cerchione said that, after having spinal surgery in 2015, his body didn’t heal as expected, and he went through “a difficult and uncertain time physically and emotionally.” He isolated himself from the people around him and didn’t want to go out in public. His wife suggested a service dog, he said, but he didn’t think his injuries were severe enough. Finally, he decided to follow her advice and, after going through training, received Taco.
“He recognized my internal struggle and need for support,” said Cerchione. “His instincts and love went beyond anything I could’ve expected.”
Cerchione was able to once again fully engage with his family and others, attending dance recitals, graduations, and “big crowded events.” When Taco died last summer, he said, he wasn’t ready for another dog and began retreating again. But his new dog Cece “has already made an incredible impact on my life.” She’s been with him through two back surgeries, he said, and she’s good with his children and their friends.
“She truly knows me as though we’d been together forever,” he said. “I’m excited to see the future. She’s a bright light in my life.”
Canine Companions service dogs are “healers, steadfast companions, and reminders of unconditional love,” said Cerchione. “They are life-changing, heart-feeling, and irreplaceable partners on our journey through life.”
Steve Longenderfer, president of the Helen and Murray Main Foundation, spoke of his long relationship with the Mains and their love for their Mathews estate. He said that Helen Main once told him that her late husband would have been happiest “if he were at the farm with 100 dogs running around.”
Longendefer challenged those gathered “to make his dream come true.”
In a separate telephone interview, Mazzoni said that the Mathews field office will be used for puppy classes, gatherings for puppy raisers, outreach for clients, follow-up visits with veterans, on-site application activities, outreach, and fundraising. Eventually, dogs will be placed with veterans at the site, as well, she said.
The grand opening was by invitation only because Mathews County, in granting a conditional use permit for an event center at the site, limited the number of activities to two fundraising events and two open houses/community events per year, said Mazzoni, with only 150 attendees permitted at each event.
Local puppy raisers
Ian and Kristin Morse of Mathews recently became the newest volunteer puppy raisers in Canine Companions’ Old Dominion Chapter. Four-month-old Hobart V, or Hobie, is a 26-pound bundle of energy who is flourishing under their care.
“We think he’s learning all kinds of stuff,” said Ian during an interview at home. “He’s been great.”
The Morses said they had thought about participating in the puppy raiser program after their children were grown, and they attended a puppy class to see what it would be like. The next thing they knew, they had a call that a litter of puppies needed homes, and they couldn’t say no.
Bobo, the two-year-old mixed breed the couple already had, goes to work with Ian every day in his construction company vehicle, said Kristin, while Hobie spends the day in Ian’s construction company office with his office manager, Brooke Lewis.
“It’s good to have them in an office environment because the person who gets them is likely to have a job,” said Kristin. “They get used to being quietly by your side.”
While in the care of a puppy raiser, Canine Companions puppies learn basic commands and become accustomed to being around people. They leave their puppy raisers at around 17 or 18 months of age to go into a professional training program that will prepare them for life as a service dog.
Asked how he’ll feel about letting Hobie go when it’s time, Ian said he won’t have a problem because “his life is specifically to be a service dog who will go off and serve somebody. That’s exciting. It’s like, ‘Go! We want to know you’re affecting somebody’s life.’ It’s exciting to see where he’s going. A veteran would be ideal.”
If it turns out that Hobie’s personality isn’t suited to his being a service dog, there are other possibilities for his future, said Ian. An independent-minded dog could be trained for search and rescue or to be a bomb-sniffing dog, while a dog that loves everyone it meets could be headed for life as a therapy dog.
“If he doesn’t make it, and they asked if we want to keep him, we aren’t sure we would,” he said. “There’s a long list of people who want them. Puppies are cute. Everybody loves a puppy. We get the best part.”
Debbie Baker of Williamsburg is excited to see the Mathews field office come to fruition.
“We’re so grateful to have that property,” she said emphatically.
A longtime volunteer puppy raiser, Baker and her husband Bob started out with Brigadoon Service Dogs in Walla Walla, Washington, for which she raised three puppies. Since she has been a volunteer for Canine Companions, she has raised seven service dogs and is now on her eighth, Sundae. She is also co-raising a puppy with Tiffany Gordon of Mathews.
“It’s hard to take a dog into the office until they’re potty trained,” she said. “Now Lucas is spending time with Tiffany in her office, and I’m raising Sundae. But I’m there for Tiffany when she needs me.”
Baker said she and other local puppy raisers meet at the Mathews site once a month for training with Leslie Neely, who is the local class leader. They also meet weekly for puppy socialization and play group.
“My hope for Mathews is to expand our puppy-raising program,” said Baker. “The ones who’ve been around a while can help the new ones. It’ll be like a puppy pal or a puppy mentor.”
Raising a puppy to be a service dog is “a very humbling, wonderful experience,” said Baker. “When I was at the top of my career, I got an eight-week-old puppy dumped in my life, and it was humbling.”
Baker said people are always asking her and Bob how they can give the puppies away when they come of age, and her reply is, “They were never mine to give away.”
“It’s volunteer work,” she said. “It’s amazing that these dogs were given for free. If you could make somebody mobile again and get them out of their home, why wouldn’t you want to do that?”
For more information about Canine Companions, visit canine.org.
