Can you believe that PPH Washington is turning ONE YEAR old? It seems like just yesterday Paws for Purple Hearts was scoping out a facility with baby Ericson in tow. In a short year, our site has made huge strides.

To start, Paws for Purple Hearts Washington has served 75 Veterans in the first six months of CAWTS. Our goal for our second year in operation is to double that and serve 150. To do so, we plan on expanding both our staff and facility size in the coming year! This is very exciting as the more staff, space, and Service Dogs in Training we have, the more Warriors we can serve.

Expanding our capacity and reach is important. When we aid a Veteran in Social Therapy, CAWTS, or by placing a dog with them, we are not only helping them find a new purpose or mitigating issues, we are helping the community around them. When one person’s life is improved, the people they interact with everyday are positively affected, which positively affects the people around them, and so on. A community well served starts with one person.

That’s what fuels Paws for Purple Hearts Washington. A staff dedicated to service and positive impact is what makes the difference.

You may be wondering if we have any plans to celebrate our one year anniversary- and boy do we! On February 24th from 11 AM- 2PM, our doors will be open to the public. All community members are welcome to visit us, learn about what we do, how we do it, and get plenty of puppy kisses, of course!

If you’re in the place to give, we will gladly accept donations. It costs around $35,000.00 to train our skilled Service Dogs to support our Warriors. We also will have plenty of PPH swag and photo opportunities for those who want to commemorate with us!

Should you not be able to attend, but still want to support us in a special way, consider donating to us between February 15th and 20th on our site. For every $15.00 donation allocated to us through our site, we will mail you a (poorly) hand drawn picture of your pet in your receipt!

To get your pet picture to us, message us on Facebook with the name your donation was made under, and a picture of the pet you would like drawn!

We are beyond grateful to our community, community partners, volunteers, and everyone who has supported us in this busy, fun, and productive first year of operation in the Pacific Northwest!