September will mark two years since Peggy Lester’s daughter, Beth, passed away. Although time slips by, the heartbreak never will.
“She was such a wonderful, happy person, a great mom, wife, friend and daughter,” says Peggy.
Beth went to college in Georgia, got married and had two children, Emma and Evan, and lived in the home she’d always dreamt about. She had everything in life she wanted.
But in 2015, she began having some concerning medical issues. Soon after, she was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. By the time it had been discovered, it was too late.
From there, Peggy, a single parent, endured an intense, year-plus journey into the world of caregiving; she retired early from her job working with special ed students so she could travel back and forth from Maryland to Atlanta to look after her daughter and help out the family. Sadly, Beth passed away in September of 2017 at the age of only 45.
“I was there when she came into the world and I was lying at her side holding her hand when she passed. She was at peace, so I’m thankful for that,” says Peggy.
When Peggy returned home to Maryland — a huge piece of her heart missing — she completely shut down with immeasurable grief. Knowing she had to do something, Peggy joined a support group for people, like her, who had had lost a child.
She also started seeing a therapist who happened to have been a volunteer at WCC. Knowing Peggy enjoyed dogs, her therapist recommended she sign up for puppy petting.
“I could not sleep at night and kept reliving the day that Beth passed and all of the traumatic memories of that day, so I got involved with whelping training and started doing overnight shifts,” said Peggy. “I wasn’t ready to be around people, and volunteering at WCC helped edge me back into the world again. Not to mention, the puppies and mamas kept me so busy, and it just really worked for me. I credit the wonderful WCC staff and dogs with giving me the support that I needed at the time.”
In fact, to-date, Peggy has logged more than 340 hours volunteering at WCC.
“I didn’t go in thinking it was about me, but it really did end up being therapeutic for me too,” says Peggy. “It gave me purpose, made me feel useful, and helped get me out of the house and, at the same time, it also gave me my space to grieve. I know they’re being trained for our Veterans, but these dogs are also helping to heal so many others along the way.”
Peggy still makes regular trips to Atlanta to see her grandchildren and son-in-law, Mike. July 18th was Beth’s birthday. And although September will undoubtedly be another tough month ahead, Peggy says one thing she is looking forward to is attending her first WCC graduation.
Way to go, Mr. Wiggles: Check out these 13 assistance dogs who just graduated
September 30, 2019 – Have you ever wondered what an assistance dog who has completed its training gets instead of a diploma?
A forever veteran.
That’s exactly what happened Sept. 28 in Gaithersburg, Maryland during a “passing of the leash” ceremony for Warrior Canine Connection’s Class of 2019. Read the complete story at ConnectingVets.com.
Combat-wounded veterans meet new service dogs
Veterans and “Puppy Parents” from 18 different states came out to recognize the hard work and service of both the dogs and military service men and women.
September 28, 2019 – Veterans got to meet their new service dogs at Warrior Canine Connection’s graduation ceremony on Saturday.
Around a dozen “good boys and girls” were honored after they completed a two-year training program. These dogs provide emotional support for combat wounded veterans and their families. Watch the entire WDVM 25 story here.
Warrior Canine Connection Receives $75,000 Grant from Boeing in Surprise Fashion
September 6, 2019
BOYDS, Md. – Warrior Canine Connection (WCC) is pleased to announce it has received a $75,000 grant from The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) to support its Mission Based Trauma Recovery (MBTR) programming in the D.C. region and beyond.
News of the grant funding was provided at Boeing’s Arlington site today during a visit with several of WCC’s youngest service pups in training from two recent litters — the No Fail Mission and Allegiance Litters. Boeing employees helped to socialize the future service dogs, a process that starts at three weeks of age.
While there, Tim Keating, Boeing executive vice president of Government Operations, surprised WCC Founder and Executive Director Rick Yount with news of the grant funding, which added some most welcome excitement to the visit.
“That was one dog-gone great surprise!” said Rick Yount, founder and executive director, Warrior Canine Connection. “It’s not every day that you attend an event and find out your organization has received a $75,000 grant. We are so thankful for Boeing’s continued support and commitment to serving our nation’s Veterans, we couldn’t do it without them.”
This recent grant funding brings Boeing’s total financial support of WCC to $175,000 over the past two years.
“Boeing is proud to partner with Warrior Canine Connection and recognizes the important work they are doing to support our military veterans and their families, said Tim Keating, Boeing’s executive vice president of Government Operations. “With this additional investment, Boeing is helping recovering Warriors reconnect with life, their families, their communities, and each other.”
WCC uses a Mission Based Trauma Recovery (MBTR) therapy model designed as an intervention for combat Veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury. The MBTR model provides Veterans with a sense of purpose while they are receiving treatment at Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities. It is designed to remediate their symptoms of combat stress, such as isolation, emotional numbness and re-experiencing events from their combat days. MBTR also harnesses the healing power of the Warrior Ethos in which Warriors train service dogs for fellow Veterans; through the process, they learn to focus on the dogs and their mission to help another Veteran.
For more information, please contact Beth Bourgeois, Warrior Canine Connection, at beth.bourgeois@warriorcanineconnection.org or 719-216-3206.
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ABOUT WARRIOR CANINE CONNECTION:
Warrior Canine Connection is a pioneering organization that utilizes a Mission Based Trauma Recovery model to empower returning combat Veterans who have sustained physical and psychological wounds while in service to our country. Based on the concept of Warriors helping Warriors, WCC’s therapeutic service dog training program is designed to mitigate symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, and other challenges, while giving injured combat Veterans a sense of purpose, and help in reintegrating back into their families and communities. For more information, visit www.warriorcanineconnection.org.
ABOUT THE BOEING COMPANY:
Boeing is the world’s largest aerospace company and leading provider of commercial airplanes, defense, space and security systems, and global services. As the top U.S. exporter, the company supports commercial and government customers in more than 150 countries.
Boeing employs more than 150,000 people worldwide and leverages the talents of a global supplier base. Building on a legacy of aerospace leadership, Boeing continues to lead in technology and innovation, deliver for its customers and invest in its people and future growth.
CU Anschutz Today: Service animal training program helps heal veterans
Warrior Canine Connection partners with Marcus Institute for Brain Health
August 21, 2019 — Opening doors, turning on lights, helping remove socks and shoes – for the talented service dogs in training from the non-profit Warrior Canine Connection (WCC), these skills are just the tip of the 80-command iceberg that dogs master to assist the visible and invisible injuries of their veteran partners.
For veterans dealing with the symptoms of traumatic brain injuries (TBI), the invisible wounds of war can worsen feelings of isolation and being disconnected from friends and family. Here at CU Anschutz, the Marcus Institute for Brain Health (MIBH) on campus has a new partnership with the WCC, a national nonprofit where veterans training service dogs for other veterans aims to heal those wounds. Read the full story here.
Easterseals DC MD VA Blog: Service Dogs in Training Provide Therapy for Wounded Warriors
September 3, 2019 — A large part of Easterseals’ success in achieving our mission – making profound, positive differences in the daily lives of people of all ages with disabilities, special needs, military backgrounds, and their families – is the collaborations we have with other like-minded organizations. Read the complete blog by Jon Horowitch, president and CEO, Easterseals DC MD VA here.
Warrior Canine Connection Earns 2019 Gold Seal of Transparency from GuideStar
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 21, 2019
BOYDS, Maryland – Warrior Canine Connection is pleased to announce that it has earned the 2019 Gold Seal of Transparency from GuideStar, the world’s largest source of nonprofit information. By sharing information about the organization’s goals, strategies, capabilities and vision, WCC is better able to provide meaningful data about its mission with donors, grantmakers, peers and the media.
“We are thrilled that our GuideStar Gold Nonprofit Profile allows us to communicate our organization’s key goals and initiatives on a widely visible scale,” said Rick Yount, founder and executive director, WCC. “We are 100% committed to being transparent about the work we’re doing, where donor dollars are going and how we are serving our nation’s heroes.”
GuideStar is the world’s largest source of information on nonprofit organizations. Through a stringent vetting process, GuideStar verifies that recipient organizations are established and that donated funds go where the donor intended, and after recent review, WCC is pleased to have been upgraded from silver to gold status.
Warrior Canine Connection uses a Mission Based Trauma Recovery (MBTR) training model that harnesses the healing power of the Warrior Ethos and the human-animal bond to reduce symptoms of combat trauma whereby Warriors with combat stress train the dogs to assist another Veteran with visible and/or invisible wounds. The model provides recovering combat Veterans with a sense of purpose while they are recovering and is designed to remediate their symptoms of combat stress, such as isolation, emotional numbness and re-experiencing. Each dog can positively impact up to 60 Veterans during the training process.
To-date, WCC has placed a total of 68 assistance dogs with Veterans and military families. Another cadre of Veteran Service Dog teams will be paired and graduate this September.
Warrior Canine Connection’s GuideStar profile, including more detailed information about the organization, is available here.
For more information, contact Beth Bourgeois, Warrior Canine Connection, at beth.bourgeois@warriorcanineconnection.org or 719-216-3206.
# # #
About Warrior Canine Connection
Warrior Canine Connection is a pioneering organization that utilizes a Mission Based Trauma Recovery model to empower returning combat Veterans who have sustained physical and psychological wounds while in service to our country. Based on the concept of Warriors helping Warriors, WCC’s therapeutic service dog training program is designed to mitigate symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, and other challenges, while giving injured combat Veterans a sense of purpose, and help in reintegrating back into their families and communities. For more information, visit www.warriorcanineconnection.org.
About GuideStar
GuideStar is a service of Candid, an organization formed when Foundation Center and GuideStar joined forces in February 2019. The GuideStar database offers profiles of more than 2.7 million organizations. Populated with data from the IRS, nonprofits, and partners, these profiles are available through the GuideStar website and more than 200 other websites and applications, including Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Fidelity Charitable. In 2018, more than 10 million people used GuideStar data to make decisions about nonprofits and the work they do.
Warrior Canine Connection on LifeChangingRadio.com
August 3, 2019 – Warrior Canine Connection Founder and Executive Director Rick Yount was recently interviewed by Jon Vaught with LifeChangingRadio.com. You can listen to the interview here. (Note: The WCC segment begins at 16:20 into the recording.)
Hubert Company Hosts Fundraiser to Benefit WCC
This summer, Hubert employee and EPW Laura Hawley created a recent in-house fundraiser to benefit WCC. The event, which included a human agility course, a pet photo contest, bake sale, and other events for employees and their families, including the WCC puppy cam livestream, raised a grand total of $3,200, making it the most successful in-house fundraiser in Hubert’s history.
The company, which provides retail merchandising solutions and support products, has a long tradition and culture of supporting the community through volunteerism and fundraising campaigns. In fact, the company established a Volunteer Leadership Council (VLC) in 2002, to enlist its employees to help support different causes and nonprofits dear to its employees’ hearts.
“I’ve been aware of WCC since Holly’s Half Dozen and have always followed the organization and the great work it’s doing to help Veterans,” said Laura. “We have a great program here at Hubert to help give back to others, so I set the wheels in motion to host a fundraiser for WCC. We reached out to people who love dogs and have a connection to the military, and it was a huge hit!”
WCC would like to say a special thank you to the Hubert Company in Harrison, Ohio, and its employees who are providing critical funds to support our mission!
“Fundraisers like this one are invaluable to Warrior Canine Connection,” said Jennifer Wilder, director of development, WCC. “Many of people don’t have the expendable income to donate large amounts but community fundraising events, like this one, along with some creativity and some elbow grease can really have an incredible impact on our efforts to support wounded Veterans.”
WCC Puppies Helping to Heal A Broken Heart
“She was such a wonderful, happy person, a great mom, wife, friend and daughter,” says Peggy.
Beth went to college in Georgia, got married and had two children, Emma and Evan, and lived in the home she’d always dreamt about. She had everything in life she wanted.
But in 2015, she began having some concerning medical issues. Soon after, she was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. By the time it had been discovered, it was too late.
From there, Peggy, a single parent, endured an intense, year-plus journey into the world of caregiving; she retired early from her job working with special ed students so she could travel back and forth from Maryland to Atlanta to look after her daughter and help out the family. Sadly, Beth passed away in September of 2017 at the age of only 45.
“I was there when she came into the world and I was lying at her side holding her hand when she passed. She was at peace, so I’m thankful for that,” says Peggy.
When Peggy returned home to Maryland — a huge piece of her heart missing — she completely shut down with immeasurable grief. Knowing she had to do something, Peggy joined a support group for people, like her, who had had lost a child.
She also started seeing a therapist who happened to have been a volunteer at WCC. Knowing Peggy enjoyed dogs, her therapist recommended she sign up for puppy petting.
“I could not sleep at night and kept reliving the day that Beth passed and all of the traumatic memories of that day, so I got involved with whelping training and started doing overnight shifts,” said Peggy. “I wasn’t ready to be around people, and volunteering at WCC helped edge me back into the world again. Not to mention, the puppies and mamas kept me so busy, and it just really worked for me. I credit the wonderful WCC staff and dogs with giving me the support that I needed at the time.”
In fact, to-date, Peggy has logged more than 340 hours volunteering at WCC.
“I didn’t go in thinking it was about me, but it really did end up being therapeutic for me too,” says Peggy. “It gave me purpose, made me feel useful, and helped get me out of the house and, at the same time, it also gave me my space to grieve. I know they’re being trained for our Veterans, but these dogs are also helping to heal so many others along the way.”
Peggy still makes regular trips to Atlanta to see her grandchildren and son-in-law, Mike. July 18th was Beth’s birthday. And although September will undoubtedly be another tough month ahead, Peggy says one thing she is looking forward to is attending her first WCC graduation.
The Batchelor Foundation Continues Tradition of Generosity
EPW Terrie Bates holding a WCC puppy.
George E. Batchelor had many passions in life. He learned to fly at age 16 and began his long aviation career in his early 20’s by helping design the P-51 fighter plane. Mr. Batchelor served his country during World War II as a decorated Army Air Corps officer, transport and bomber pilot. He also had a deep fondness for animals and the environment, and so when he established The Batchelor Foundation Inc. those were among the key areas of which he chose to give support.
In fact, the Batchelor Foundation’s mission is to provide philanthropic support to nonprofit organizations that focus on promoting the good health, education and well-being of children, animal welfare and the preservation of the natural environment in South Florida.
And recently, the Batchelor Foundation provided a grant to Warrior Canine Connection — the fourth of its kind since 2014, to help support the WCC service dog training programs. WCC is unique from other organizations the Batchelor Foundation funds being that it’s based in Maryland.
“Although Warrior Canine Connection’s mission fell outside the range of the Batchelor Foundation’s typical giving geography, the leadership team felt there was a strong fit and unique opportunity to honor both George’s distinguished WWII military service and love of dogs by supporting WCC,” said Sandy Batchelor, Chairman and co-CEO, of the Batchelor Foundation.
Warrior Canine Connection came to the Batchelor Foundation by way of Extreme Puppy Watcher Terrie Bates, who got involved with WCC through the magic of Facebook and watching the puppy cam. She traces her ties to the organization back to “Holly’s Half Dozen,” when she and other EPWs helped pull together a party to see the puppies — that was when Explore.org, the 24-hour puppy cam, had just launched.
“My affinity for WCC started with the love of dogs, but seeing the mission in action and the difference it can make in a Veteran’s life is amazing,” said Terrie. “I grew up in the Vietnam era where it seemed like we lost an entire generation of Veterans who returned home with PTSD and other injuries, yet there was little understanding of these issues and no support system to help them. We know better today so we need to do better, and WCC is one of the organizations filling that role — helping Veterans transition and reintegrate back into their families and communities.”
A long-time employee of the South Florida Water Management District, a large government agency that services Orlando to the Keys, Terrie got to know Sandy Batchelor when Sandy served as a member of the organization’s Governing Board during her six-and-a-half-year tenure.
Each year, the South Florida Water Management District picks a charity to benefit from their employee’s fundraising activities; in 2014, WCC was selected based on Terrie’s nomination. Sandy volunteered to be the Honorary Event Chairwoman on behalf of the Governing Board and several years later, the Batchelor Foundation is still providing generous support to Warrior Canine Connection and Terrie is still glued to the WCC puppy cam.
“I think it’s always understated how much everybody that’s associated with WCC gets out of their affiliation,” says Terrie. “There are so many friendships that have been made across the country among people who literally would have never met otherwise. They all feel like they’re contributing — certainly, the mission and focus is on Veterans, but the support and connections touch a lot more lives than just the Veterans — an entire community has come together as a result.”