PUPPY SHOWER DE-TAILS

What a party! The ICAN Puppy Shower for these nine growing bundles of fur and energy was fantastic. Over 125 people attended and the vast majority of them made financial contributions to support the puppies. Each attendee was invited to make a donation in honor of the puppy of their choice. Each pup had its own photo display and donation box (with a racing theme, of course, in honor of their benefactor Tony Stewart!). It was fun to watch our guests go over to the puppy pen, play with the pups, decide which was their "favorite", then walk to the donation box and insert a contribution to support that dog.

The pups were in a pen the entire night EXCEPT when they were being cuddled by our guests or having their photo taken by ICAN's friend Carl Frye (Need a great photographer? carl@FocusGroupPhoto.com). In other words, the puppies weren't in their pen that much!

Total funds donated that night were $6691.00, and we are so appreciative of everyone's generosity. How do those contributions help? Let me share that health care for the nine pups for their first year of life will total around $6750 (preventative care, vaccines, spay/neuter, for example). The puppies food cost for their first year of training could be covered by the donations raised at the shower. With ICAN having 50+ dogs in its training program, you can see why donation such as this are significant to our success at training and placing skilled service dogs with children and adults with disabilities.

Of special interest to people was the display with a photo showing each puppy and a letter written by that pup's handler at Plainfield Correctional Facility (PCF). Underneath the handlers letters on display, were photos of ICAN clients and dogs we have placed together. I can't tell you how many guests stopped at that large display of letters and read each letter word by word. I also can't tell you how many positive comments we received from these guests expressing how moved they were by the handler's words and how dedicated each handler sounded. Several guests elected to write the handlers a return note of encouragement and thanks on the poster board we had out for that very reason.

By the end of the night, we had nine EXHAUSTED puppies on our hands. These photos tell you just how hard those nine pups worked at the puppy shower!

Thanks to everyone who attended the shower to share in the joy of these nine puppies, and special thanks to those who made a donation to help the pups in their 2 years of training. Want to make a donation yourself in honor of one of these puppies? Visit www.icandog.org and click on Sponsor A Dog. You'll find photos of each of the nine pups there and you can pick which one you want to sponsor. In return for your donation you receive a sponsorship certificate and a photo of you puppy! Thanks in advance.