America’s Warriors play kickball while PPH’s service dogs in-training cheer them on

This week, our San Antonio team packed up the office and took a field trip to support a very special bunch of people- Veterans who were taking part in the Wounded Warrior Project®’s Warrior Kickball Game! Although the day started off cold and dreary, the rain eventually let up and it got warm enough to where a good, but slippery, game of kickball could begin.

We brought Rusty and Kyree to meet all of the great Warriors and were able to squeeze some special training in as well. While the Veterans were finishing up their game, Kyree and Rusty got experience walking on different types of surfaces. Rear-end awareness is always an important thing for service dogs to be cognizant of and the dogs got to practice this while walking forwards, backwards, and doing tight turns on metal bleachers.

Post Game Activities

When the game ended, the Warriors got to enjoy a delicious lunch provided by a local restaurant. While they ate, we were able to introduce the Veterans to our organization and tell them the types of services we offer.

Questions on how to go about applying for a service dog quickly came up as well as inquiries about general volunteer opportunities. The Warriors learned that there were multiple ways they could volunteer with our Paws for Purple Hearts team, but they thought being a puppy petter, puppy play facilitator, or puppy parent sounded like the most fun.

We talked about our highly innovative Canine Assisted Warrior Therapy ™ that we provide to America’s Warriors by partnering with Audie Murphy Memorial VA Hospital and the Austin VA Outpatient Clinic providers. This one-of-a-kind therapy helps reduce PTSD and TBI symptoms by giving each Warrior an important job to do – train one of our dogs to become a service dog for a Warrior who is going through the same things they are.

We were so grateful for the chance to come share a little bit about
our organization with these great Warriors.

Community Effort

As always, we would like to thank our donors and our volunteers for always being willing to support Paws for Purple Hearts in any way possible. We would not be able to have such a successful organization without you.