If you haven’t been to one of PAALS annual fundraisers before, let me just tell you what’s coming up On March 2. It’s our Ungala and that means a new themed party priced for everyone to attend. This year’s focus is Old West. You can expect mechanical bulls, live music, silent auction, live auction, amazing food and drinks all included. We outgrew our old venue which is a terrific challenge to have! This year we will have our event at the State Museum to ensure everyone and their friends can attend. We normally do this later in the spring, but wanted to try earlier to compete with fewer events that you might like to attend. So, we are really counting on everyone to make this a success. So put on your cowboy or cowgirl boots and mosey on down on March 3! … [Read more...]
January Letter for the Executive Director
One of the great things about a new year is that we all tend to pause and look back on the previous year. Even though I’ve been a part of all of these happenings I was still surprised and encouraged by all that PAALS accomplished in 2012 and want to share these highlights PAALS Highlights 2012 Started the advanced training of four dogs Trained an apprentice trainer ¾ way! Purchased a PAALS vehicle, a minibus Completed ADI accreditation Completed an Audit Renewed all 3 CFC applications Completed our 6th year of camp Our first afterschool program, ZooBots Started another 2 cycles of assistance puppies and dogs in training Two PAALS folks got EAGALA certified Expanded our weekend pupsitter and foster program Expanded Prison PAALS to include a new housing unit for VIP program and new fenced exercise yard for dogs Initiated a new fundraising tool with PAALS Pack membership Two PAALS … [Read more...]
Sonic Night
The Sonic night will be on December 27, 2012, at the Ballentine Sonic. The address is 1150 Dutch Fork Road, Irmo, SC 29036. It starts at 5 p.m. and goes to 8 p.m.. PAALS will be getting 10% of all profits, and all the tips we earn we get to keep. … [Read more...]
PAALS Receives ADI Accreditation
Assistance Dogs International (ADI) has approved PAALS for a full five-year ADI Accreditation. Part of the mission of Assistance Dogs International (ADI) is to establish standards for the assistance dog Industry – ensuring that dogs are treated humanely, clients are treated with respect and dignity, and training is delivered in a professional way at all times. Assistance Dog users trust their lives and safety to their dogs, so everything related to the training of both the dogs and people must meet extraordinary criteria. Over many years, members of ADI have developed an accreditation manual and procedures to evaluate the quality standards of assistance dog programs. Areas evaluated include: safety and cleanliness of the training facility, fair and ethical treatment of clients, proper health care for the dogs, humane training methods for the dogs, criteria for screening suitability of both dogs and clients, criteria for matching … [Read more...]
December Letter for the Executive Director
This is the season where all of us tend to think about charities more and I hope for all of you reading this it’s a time of year you think of PAALS. I had the chance to grow personally(as the quote above mentions) this year during a visit to Uganda. I was saddened to see how people with disabilities struggled in ways I had never seen before in such a poor country. Knowing I could help people back home with disabilities through my work with all of you who support PAALS was my only solace in watching these eye opening scenes as we traveled this country. It was an experience that also made me realize how much we all really do have in this country. Some have more time to give rather than money, but we all have some way to give to something we believe in. It makes me proud to push PAALS through the challenges of our first year of not meeting all of our budget goals, because I know it’s not due to lack of effort or good work. In fact we’ve been making more leaps of faith … [Read more...]
