Patriot Assistance Dog group is now accepting members

Want to support military veterans and homeless dogs, all at the same time?

The Patriot Assistance Dogs organization in Detroit Lakes is offering public memberships for $25 a year or $500 for a lifetime membership.

“The membership drive was launched last week, we’re hoping to get people more involved,” said bookkeeper Dawn Hutmacher, who is managing the membership drive for the Patriot Assistance Dogs organization. “We’re always looking for foster homes, and sometimes more dogs, and to reach more veterans,” she said.

Patriot Assistance Dogs “has grown by leaps and bounds since our founder, Linda Wiedewitsch, brought her dream to take rescued dogs and train them as service dogs for veterans living with PTSD and TBI to life in 2011,” the group said in its membership drive letter. “We now have trained and placed over 230 service dogs with qualified veterans.”

To qualify, veterans must be physically, emotionally and financially able to care for a patriot assistance dog, and provide letters of support from mental health providers and local veterinarians. They then attend a five-day course in Detroit Lakes, and if they qualify, take a dog home with them when they leave.

The dogs receive anywhere from eight to 15 months of training, so the organization has to make sure applicants are working on maintaining their mental health and are physically and financially able to care for a dog, Hutmacher said.

The program is so popular that the group has had to cut back its coverage area, and now serves veterans only in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Iowa and Wisconsin, Hutmacher said.

“The need is so strong that we have a hard time keeping up with the demand,” she said.

Membership comes with a welcome kit with a PAD refrigerator magnet or sticker and the group’s most current newsletter, and members will also get quarterly newsletters with current team placements and program updates, as well as a yearly newsletter with all graduates from the prior year.

Also, members receive access to a Members Only Portal on the PAD website, including a weekly blog to keep people updated, and a 10% discount on clothing and other PAD items for sale.

To join, sign up at the webpage https://app.donorview.com/JyGqz or or call 218-850-2425.

“With your support, we will be able to continue our work and grow,” the group said in its letter.