SYLVANIA, Ohio — At just one-year-old Hank, a black lab, is smarter than most as he obediently follows different commands.
In just another year, Hank can graduate from the Assistance Dogs for Achieving Independence (ADAI) program through the Ability Center and be placed into a family who needs the assistance he is learning now.
"If you fall down and you can't get to somebody they can go get the phone for you,” Suzette Biela, a foster mom for the ADAI program, said. “It's amazing. These guys are life changers."
Biela is Hank's foster parent. She's been with the Assistance Dogs for Achieving Independence program for two years.
The program takes puppies and trains them over the course of two years to become an assistance dog or therapy dog. Some even go to local schools to help children.
Biela has watched some of her foster pups change lives.
"He (Dill, a former foster dog) is with a junior in high school,” Biela said. “And she wants to go eventually go away to college one day and her mom wasn't comfortable with that, but now that she has Dill she'll be able to go away."
Stories like this encourages people like Biela and so many others to volunteer. The program pays for most of the dog’s needs. All they ask of you is that you have the time to train, a bit of patience and a lot of love.
They are asking others in the community to consider volunteering for the ADAI program as they are going to need a new batch of volunteers as more dogs get the training they need to help people here in our community.
"We have one dog that's going to be due Monday and then we've got another one that's due a couple of weeks so it's going to be puppy palozza here pretty soon," Tina Calhoun, the foster program coordinator for the ADAI program through the Ability Center, said.
But that's not all.
Right now, the program is being run out of a rented space near Flower Hospital. The Ability Center broke ground on a brand new $1.4 million facility.
The space was designed to help the program train with ease and efficiency in addition to collaborating with another local nonprofit called Agility Angels.
Agility Angels uses the sport of dog agility to help individuals diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder to develop social skills, enhance their physical abilities and gain self-confidence.
Together, the two organizations will support each other, share the space and share ideas and training.
The new space is set to open this fall, but they still need some help raising funds to finish the job that will go in at 5605 Monroe Street. Leaders said the space will be a game changer.
"It will be that we're able to have everything going on in one space. Here we are where we are renting, borrowing a space," Calhoun said. “It will just be nice because we can have multiple things going on at one time.”
They need your help to continue to provide for people. Whether money or time, you can make a difference.
"The bigger question is why you aren't doing it because everybody could do it,” Biela said. “And if everybody did we'd have that many more dog that could help that many more people."
If you want to donate to the building or the programs at the Ability Center you can do so on their website. If you would prefer to volunteer with the A.D.A.I. program or any other area you can click here. For more on the Ability Center and all they offer you can contact their office.
