GFWC Antelope-North County Women’s Club, along with more than 300 other women’s clubs in California, is supporting a special organization called Canine Companions for Independence, or CCI. The mission of CCI is to enhance the lives of people with disabilities by providing highly trained dogs and ongoing support for both human and dog partners. CCI receives no government help and is supported by private contributions. CCI was founded in Santa Rosa in 1975 and in 2006, and 178 teams of humans with their special dogs graduated from this program.
CCI trains different types of Canine Companions, Service Dogs for people with physical or developmental disabilities, Hearing Dogs for adults who are hard of hearing or deaf, and Facility Dogs for adults who work as professional care givers or educators who can use the dog to improve mental, physical or emotional health of young and old in those settings. These dogs are very special dogs and there is no charge to receive a CCI trained dog. The human partner must also complete two weeks of training before they are given a dog. The average working life of a service dog is 8 years and when the dog is retired they live out the rest of their life as a pet. If you are interested, check out CCI at www.cci.org.
The GFWC Antelope Women’s Club has elected a new President, Jane Chester. Jane is a proud member of the ANCWC and also works selling her crafts at craft fairs in the local area during the year and she is also a retired member of the Air Force. She will serve for the 2008-2009 year starting in September. We are proud to have Jane as a member. Another one of our members, Dori Kelsey was elected to serve on the CFWC or State level Executive Committee for the 2008-2010 term.
If any of this sounds interesting to you, please contact us at 332- 7133 and ask for Dori, or e-mail us at antelopeCFWC@comcast.net. Our next meeting will be held at one of our member’s homes on June 14th at 3pm, we are serving a dessert bar in honor of our new President, Jane Chester. See you there!