As part of our Public Education and Outreach Program, Helping Paws can provide various presentations and demonstrations to schools (preschool through graduate school), churches, businesses, and other organizations.  Helping Paws does many of these demonstrations throughout the year.  Our volunteers, which include foster home training teams, demonstration dog teams, and graduate teams, and staff bring their service dogs and explain the mission of Helping Paws and what it is like to have and/or train a service dog.  The dogs will also "show off" some of the commands they have been trained to do. In most cases, Helping Paws asks for a minimum of a $100 honorarium ($250 corporate) for us to do a demonstration.  A sliding fee can be arranged in certain circumstances.

These presentations are an effective tool in reducing attitudinal barriers and increasing understanding of the needs of people with disabilities and their service dogs.  They also give the Helping Paws staff and volunteers a chance to recruit additional volunteers, graduates, and foster homes for our programs. 

If you would like Helping Paws to do a demonstration for your organization, please contact Judy Michurski at 952-988-9359, extension 11 or send an email to jmichurski@helpingpaws.org.