The York Region Branch of St. John Ambulance is pleased to announce the Annual Awards Ceremony for the volunteers and their canine partners who are so dedicated to the Therapy Dog Program.  

This very special event will be held on Sunday, November 8, 2009, at 2 p.m. at Lynette Hall, next to Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church located at 15347 Yonge Street, north of Wellington Street, in the Town of Aurora. This event is held annually in celebration of the commitment and accomplishments of the dedicated and hard-working volunteers and their canine partners who are involved in the Therapy Dog Program.  

Established in 1992, the St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog Program has grown to become a recognized leader in Animal-Assisted therapy. The program reaches out to thousands of people across Canada on a daily basis. The Therapy Dog Program brings comfort, joy and companionship to members of the community who are sick, lonely or reside in full-time care facilities. Clients reap the therapeutic benefits of the unconditional love of a four-legged friend. Volunteers are also involved in a reading program called Paws 4 Stories and teach dog-bite prevention in local schools.

The volunteers, their families and the therapy dogs will assemble to be recognized for the hundreds of hours they have committed to the community throughout the past year. A number of awards will be given to these members, including medallions that will be issued to dogs recognizing the number of visits they have made to the participants in this worthy program. Some volunteers and their dogs have made as many as 500 visits to patients, over the course of approximately ten years, which is a major accomplishment.