Wow – I feel like I’ve been running non-stop between Thanksgiving and Christmas! With two of our three daughters and their families now living on the west coast, I not only had to think about what to buy them all for Christmas, but then I had to wrap up the purchased gifts quickly and get them mailed off. Fortunately, everything reached Boulder and San Francisco on time to make it under their trees. I’ll be much better prepared for this next year. Our Christmas tree exited the house through the front door this morning, so we wouldn’t be handling that task in a foot of snow that is predicted for this evening. Out with the Old, and in with the New.
Now, it’s time to focus on the New Year and all its possibilities. This sets my mind thinking about Bright Spot Therapy Dogs. 2014 is a big year for our small ~ growing ~ organization. This year marks our Tenth Anniversary. So much has happened in the past ten years. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to believe Bright Spot has come so far. Over the years, we have created and implemented a therapy dog training program that attracts applicants from all New England states. In this past decade, scientific research has revealed that human-canine interaction truly is therapeutic, resulting in an unprecedented demand for therapy dogs in all areas of health care and education. Our trained and certified Bright Spot Therapy Dog Teams now brighten the lives of the elderly in nursing homes, patients in hospitals, those afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease, folks on hospice care, patients in mental health units, young children in schools, students in college, and answer the call when disaster strikes.
Thanks to grants from foundations and gifts from private donors, we are able to train more therapy dog teams, create programs such as our Bright Spot Reading Buddy Program that fosters a love of reading in elementary school-age children, and bring therapy dogs to college campuses offering stress-relief to students during exams. Thanks to generous community sponsorships, we are able to keep membership costs low for our volunteers who offer countless hours of their time to support our mission of bringing comfort and caring to those in need through the human-canine bond. None of this growth would have happened without the talented people who make up our Bright Spot Board of Directors. Each Board member lends his or her valuable expertise and vision to see that Bright Spot Therapy Dogs continues to grow as a leading Therapy Dog organization in New England.
Each January, it is my great pleasure to sit at my computer and write our annual publication: Bright Spot News. The News highlights the meaningful work our volunteers have performed over the past year. In addition, we publish our Annual Report of Donors in the News. This year, we have more than doubled our gifts from donors and grants from foundations. This is an amazing tribute to our special dogs and their dedicated handlers who bring so much joy to others. If you would like to become a Bright Spot donor or add your name to our mailing list to receive the Bright Spot News, please email me at bright-spot@comcast.net.
I will continue to write about the special work our Therapy Dogs do in my posts on Say Hello Spot. Thank you for following my blog these past three years. My readership has reached 30,000. I love hearing from you on facebook and look forward to a very promising 2014.