Service Dogs Support
Eastern Star Support of Service Dogs
The Order of the Eastern Star has adopted support of training and placement of Service Dogs as a signature charity throughout our fraternity. As such, our global fraternity partners with accredited Service Dog training organizations at national, state, and sometimes local levels. In Minnesota, the statewide support is for the Veterans and First Responders with PTSD program managed by Helping Paws.
Helping Paws has an accredited program, specific to training Service Dogs to support Veterans and First Responders with PTSD. Eastern Star supports the training and placement with donations to this program, along with requesting grants from Minnesota Masonic Charities.
Supporting the need for Service Dogs is occurring on a national basis within Eastern Star, with each state and local chapter coordinating how they can raise funds and make a difference in their community
Read on down the page for ways memberrs and Chapters can support this partnership
Video supplied courtesty of Helping Paws Minnesota
How You Can Get Involved
- Partner with a local American Legion or VFW to put on a pancake breakfast for service dogs
- Assist at a Helping Paws Fundraising Event
- Invite Helping Paws to bring a Service Dog to one of your events
- Make pieces needed for Service Dogs, such as the "door opener" hook shown below.
Special Request
Helping Paws is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing highly trained service dogs at no-cost for individuals with physical disabilities and veterans or others with diagnosed PTSD. It is staffed primarily by volunteers. We are looking for a source to get plastic hooks like the one pictured to teach puppies how to open entrance doors, cabinet doors, refrigerator doors, and freezer doors.
The hooks we currently use are made of plastic. They must be strong enough to pull open an entrance door at a shopping center or a freezer door and not break. Previously our hooks were produced by students at the Hennepin Technical College, but that program is no longer available, and we have not been able to locate a vendor or an educational program to have more of hooks made.
Every volunteer trainer gets one of these door-pulls with the hook to train their pups. It takes a lot of hooks as there are 60-70 dogs in training at any given time. The door-pulls are similar to a very short leash with a loop handle at one end and the large plastic hook on the other end. Each door-pull is custom made using nylon webbing, a short piece of plastic tubing for the dog to hold in its mouth, and the plastic hook. To save cost, we recycle old leashes that have been chewed or are otherwise damaged.
The original hooks were made by injection-molding of the plastic. It has been suggested that they could possibly be made using the 3-D printing. Any ideas or suggestions for a source will be appreciated. We are totally out of the hooks.
Brinley doing "Get the Door"
Fully assembled door pull
Closeup of Hook
