Over the past few months, Paws for Purple Hearts (PPH) San Antonio has begun to explore opportunities to connect deeper with the military community as well as the city of San Antonio. We want to get the word out that PPH is committed to improving the lives of America’s Warriors facing mobility challenges and trauma related conditions such as PTSD and TBI.  The San Antonio Chamber of Commerce is a collaboration of local hard-working businesses in the San Antonio community that strives to make this city the best place to work, invest, and live in. The Chamber of Commerce has many priorities: advocating for businesses, promoting business priorities to elected leaders, ensuring strong military relationships, and providing networking opportunities for members, to name just a few.

Paws for Purple Hearts has been participating in multiple community events over the past few months and has had the honor of meeting some amazing people, businesses, and other non-profit organizations here in San Antonio. The following are four big events that stood out as excellent collaborations of non-profit, safety, and community organizations and unique/special interactions with the people of San Antonio.

Riley Goes on her First Public Outing

The end of August, Miss Riley and her trainer Jenny got a chance to attend a Public Safety Work shop that was hosted by the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) and Chamber of Commerce. This was Riley’s first big public outing and she showed why she is one of our exceptional dogs! At only 4 months old, she sat quietly (most of the time) and listened while the members of the SAPD gave a great presentation on what business owners and customers should do in the event of a workplace shooting. Riley met one of the SAPD’s K9 handlers as well- and guess what? His working dog was named Riley too! We were also able to spread the word about our mission and our ability to place not only Service Dogs, but Facility Dogs, and Specialist Therapy Dogs with community professionals who help military members.

Time to Meet Senator Ted Cruz!

In early September, Noah, our 2 year old Golden Retriever service-dog-in-training, got the once in a pup’s lifetime chance to go to the Chamber’s Congressional Series Luncheon with Senator Ted Cruz. During this event, Noah displayed to everyone how a real service-dog-in-training should act in public settings. During the lunch, Noah sat quietly underneath the table while listening to Senator Cruz’s speech on updating the business community on the most pressing issues facing our country today. During his speech, Senator Cruz provided an “insider’s perspective on what is happening in our nation’s capital and shared his insight on the proposed infrastructure bill, the US/Mexico/Canada Agreement (USMCA) and legislative efforts to help strengthen the economy.” We were lucky enough to get the chance to talk to Senator Cruz in person and described for him the impact our dogs have on Warriors all over the country.

Breakfast with San Antonio’s Mayor Ron Nirenburg

On September 18th, Noah and his trainer Barbara got the chance to meet San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenburg. While participating in an event hosted by the Rivard Report, Noah and his trainer networked with members of the local non-profit community and got a chance to share PPH’s history (and got lots of pets from them as well). Mayor Nirenburg talked to eager listeners about his agenda for his second term in office.  Highlighting his momentum on Climate Action & Adaptation Plan, affordable housing, and ConnectSA (a multimodal transportation plan) were at the forefront of his speaking topics.

Meet a Helping Hero

Lastly, all of our staff and dogs got the chance to participate in a great event called Meet a Helping Hero that was hosted by Petco Stores and the Petco Foundation. Earlier this year, Paws for Purple Hearts applied for a grant with the Petco Foundation and it was announced to us that we would receive $5,000 to put towards our lifesaving work of providing top-notch services dogs to Veterans and military Service Members as well as provide Canine Assisted Warrior Therapy®. Members of our community got a chance to meet local service-dogs-in-training, ask questions about the important role they play in the military community, and learn about volunteer opportunities available to them. Many people who we got the opportunity to talk to wanted to donate to our cause and did so generously. Our thanks to the Nacogdoches Petco location for letting us come to your store and share our important mission with our community.

As always, we would like to thank our generous donors and volunteers for all your help and support, be it financially, physically, or in spirit. Without you, serving our Nation’s Warriors would not be possible and we would not be able to provide our life changing therapies and dogs free of charge.