The VetDogs Sentinel 24
Vol. 8 No. 1 • Spring 2017
The VetDogs Sentinel
A publication of America’s VetDogs – the Veteran’s K-9 Corps
Volume 8 No. 1 • Spring 2017
Stories are separated by four ampersands to help you to jump from article to article. They are also hyperlinked to help you navigate.
In this issue:
Cover box
Graduate Profile: Joseph Worley
A Message from our CEO
Charlie Leads the Charge!
Dog Tags Photo Section
Email Sign-up
Cover box
Save the Dates
Support America’s Heroes!
3rd Annual
Long Island Run & Dog Walk
Saturday, July 29, 2016
Old Bethpage Village Restoration
Old Bethpage, New York
LIRace4Vets.VetDogs.org
8th Annual VetDogs Golf Classic
Monday, August 28, 2016
Huntington Country Club
Huntington, New York
Golf.VetDogs.org
A photo shows a veteran bending down and hugging his yellow Lab. The dog is wearing his America’s VetDogs service dog vest.
Graduate Profile
Joseph Worley: A New Journey
As a Navy corpsman, Joseph Worley served as a medic to a Marine unit in Fallujah, Iraq. In 2004, he was wounded by an IED when his medical convoy came under attack. He would lose his left leg above the knee and suffer severe damage to his right leg and ankle.
He spent the next two years in rehab at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (now the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center), but to Worley, “I didn’t really start my recovery until 2008.”
What made 2008 special? That was the year Worley partnered with a Golden Retriever named Benjamin. He trained with the dog in the first on-campus service dog class at VetDogs headquarters in Smithtown, New York. Since then, the two have been inseparable.
Previously, service dog placements had been done off-site on an individual basis, either near Walter Reed or in a veteran’s home community. Moving to group classes was an important step forward in the growth and success of our programs, allowing VetDogs to provide dogs and training to more veterans at one time.
Accepting help
Worley felt a little lost after high school graduation and wanted to do something different with his life. Just before he turned 21, he joined the U.S. Navy, eventually deploying to Iraq. He served in-country for six months before being wounded.
He was medevaced to Germany, and once stabilized, he was transferred back to the United States. It was during his time at Walter Reed that he first learned of VetDogs and its programs.
After his release from rehab, Worley and his family returned to Georgia to resume their lives, but it was a tough transition for the young veteran. “You’re going from who you’ve been for 24 years – the person who’s always helped others – into this new person who needed help,” he says. “It was very difficult for me to learn to accept help.”
When he was invited to service dog class, he decided to accept the help.
In many ways, that first class was a testing ground, to see what would work in a group setting and what wouldn’t, but, Worley says, “Everyone was confident, and they knew what they were doing.” At the end of the 10-day class, the cable channel HISTORY sponsored a special graduation ceremony.
Upon returning home, Worley realized just how much Benjamin would come to mean to him. “To be honest, I was really surprised,” he recalls. “I knew that there would be a change, but one of the biggest things that helped me out was the workload that he pulled off my family.”
Now, “I couldn’t just lie around,” he says. “I had a motivator in that I had [the dog] who needed me.” Benjamin forced him to keep to a schedule again, and more importantly, helped him to go outside his comfort zone – “physically stepping outside of my comfort zone.” Before Benjamin, Worley would feel uncomfortable if he was more than two or three steps from a wheelchair or a chair.
He had come to believe that he had gone as far as he could go with his physical recovery. “I really thought I was done,” he says, but in addition to his new service dog, he also began working with a new prosthetist.
Worley had received a prosthetic leg during his rehab, and “I thought my leg was good, until I had someone say, ‘No, you could do so much more.’” By working with the prosthetist, and with Benjamin there to provide balance and help him if he fell, he was able to learn how to walk properly again.
Stepping out
Before Worley was teamed with Benjamin, he used his wheelchair to get around more than 90 percent of the time. Now, he says, “I would say I spend roughly 85 percent of my time walking.” (By “walking,” Worley means wearing his prosthetic leg and being prepared to walk, not that he is on his feet all day.)
The change Benjamin brought to his life is one of the reasons that compelled him to volunteer to promote America’s VetDogs. He quickly became one of VetDogs’ most popular and requested speakers, addressing conventions, trade shows, and schools; representing VetDogs in local and national media; and even introducing comedian Kathy Griffin before her sold-out shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
In 2015, Worley joined the staff at America’s VetDogs as the veterans relations liaison. In this role, he fosters relationships between VetDogs and potential donors; builds rapport with veterans service organizations, veterans, and other service clubs; and promotes increased public awareness of America’s VetDogs and the Guide Dog Foundation. He also remains a highly requested speaker. It’s a busy schedule that has only ramped up since he became a full-time employee.
But as Worley started getting busier, Benjamin started slowing down. On their last big trip to a trade show in Orlando, Florida, he relates, “[Benjamin] did everything that I asked him to do, and I couldn't figure out why I felt so guilty about it. His speed was good, and he was fine. But when we stopped and went back to the hotel room, he passed clean out, and when we got home, it was a week until he was back to his old self.
“And I realized at that point he would work himself to the grave for me, and I didn't want to do that to him.” So Worley made the difficult decision to retire the partner who’d been by his side for more than eight years. Benjamin is now a treasured pet in the Worley household. “I wanted him to still be able to get around and be healthy,” he says. “He’s done so much for me that I wanted him to enjoy a little bit of down time.”
A new beginning
Worley returned to VetDogs in April 2017 to train with his new service dog Galaxie (sponsored by the Empire Galaxie Car Club in New York).
There was never a question, he says, that he would come to America’s VetDogs when it was time to get another dog. “Part of my job is to teach and inform people,” he says, “and you can’t do that from a book. You have to see what these dogs can do.”
Before training even began, the instructors reached out to him to ask what types of situations he would be concerned about. “They asked those questions and took care of those problems. I think that’s really cool.”
Worley’s new dog has been trained to retrieve dropped items, brace, and open doors (either manually by using a special handle or pushing the push-plate on a power-assisted door).
One of the tasks Worley particularly likes is the “move” command, which he can use to have Galaxie help pull his wheelchair. It was a task he thought unnecessary, until shoulder and wrist injuries forced him to wonder what would happen if he was unable to maneuver in his manual wheelchair. “That was something [the trainers] already thought of.”
He appreciates how open they are to suggestion. “They’re always asking, ‘Do you think this is good, do you think this is bad?’”
He reflects: “My life is so far beyond where I thought I would be in 2008 when I got Benjamin that I cannot begin to express the love and appreciation I have for America’s VetDogs and for the people here. I feel like I left the old me in the dust. I’m doing things I never thought possible. I can’t see my ‘ceiling’ anymore.”
Photos: (1) A man in a green shirt and shorts sits in a wheelchair. His left leg is a prosthesis. Lying next to him is a Golden Retriever wearing a camouflage vest bearing the America’s VetDogs logo and the words “Service Dog.” The caption reads: Joe and service dog Benjamin during a visit to New York City. Photo courtesy TODAY
(2) A man with a prosthetic left leg, wearing a blue t-shirt, black shirts, and a baseball cap stands at the top of a staircase. Looking up at him is a yellow Lab. The caption reads: Joe and his new service service dog, Galaxie, work on balance going up and down stairs. Photo by Rebecca Eden
(3) A man in a blue t-shirt, black shirts and wearing a baseball cap with a prosthetic left leg is sitting in his wheelchair, holding onto the leash of the dog by his left side. They are in a department store. The caption reads: Joe and Galaxie practice the “move” command in a department store.
A Message from our CEO
Just as we started to count our blessings for a relatively mild winter with few snowstorms, a mid-March nor’easter gave a quick reminder the season hadn’t quite finished with us. But the delay of spring was short-lived, and the beauty of spring and summer are the literal rebirth and growth the new seasons bring.
One of the things we’re most proud of at America’s VetDogs is the “rebirth” we offer to veterans with disabilities and the opportunity for them to live without boundaries. It costs more than $50,000 to train and place just one guide or service dog with a veteran with disabilities, but there is never a charge to veterans for their dogs, training, travel to our campus, and room and board. We are funded entirely thanks to the generosity of you, our treasured donors.
In honor of Military Appreciation Month, we’ve enlisted Charlie, the puppy with a purpose who appears on NBC’s TODAY every morning, to lead an ambitious fundraising campaign for May – Operation VetDogs.
We want to raise $500,000 to sponsor 10 service dogs for 10 veterans. A team of our loyal donors has already committed the first $250,000. Now we need to raise the remaining $250,000.
In this issue’s story about Operation VetDogs, you will read how a veteran’s service dog changed not only his life, but the lives of his wife and family. And in our graduate profile, Joseph Worley – who recently returned to VetDogs to train with a new service dog after retiring his first – tells how his service dog helped relieve the burden on his family.
With your help, we change countless lives. Please join us in Operation VetDogs as Charlie leads the charge. Take pride in all you do for the men and women who have sacrificed so much.
Thank you so very much for all you do!
Wells B. Jones, FASAE, CAE, CFRE
Chief Executive Officer
Dog Tags Photo Section
A large group of people pose for the camera. Four people sitting in front are holding puppies – two black, two yellow. At their feet is a giant facsimile of a check. The caption reads: In March, we welcomed members of the FDNY 343 Ride to VetDogs headquarters in Smithtown, and they presented us with a check for $18,000 to help fund our programs. The FDNY 343 Ride was started in 2011 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and honor the 343 members of the FDNY who died that day. Proceeds from the annual bicycle ride are donated to veterans groups. Photo by Rebecca Eden
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Three men stand in a line, wearing blue shirts and numbered bibs. The man in the middle has a long-sleeve orange shirt underneath. The caption reads: VetDogs graduate Captain Tim Hornik, USA, (center) recently participated in the Bataan Memorial Death March in El Paso, New Mexico, a 26.2-mile journey that commemorates the American and Filipino troops who were captured by the Japanese after the fall of the Philippines. The memorial march was started by the Army ROTC Department at New Mexico State University as a way of honoring the members of the 200th Coast Artillery, New Mexico National Guard who were captured. The event has grown from about 100 participants in 1989 to 6500 today. Photo courtesy Victor Henderson
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A man in a green racing shirt and bike pants poses with his bike in front of a mountain range. The caption reads: In September 2016, Michael Margulis set off on a bicycling tour along the Route des Grandes Alpes (Great Alpine Road), a 684-kilometer (425-mile) road that starts in Lake Geneva, Switzerland, winds through the French Alps, and goes to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Michael raised more than $20,000 for America’s VetDogs and its programs. Photo courtesy Michael Margulis
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Three women dressed in winter coats pose for the camera. They are holding the leashes of three dogs. The caption reads: Last fall, students from the University of Scranton Occupational Therapy program held a “pet a puppy” fundraiser in support of America’s VetDogs. The students of the program have been supporting VetDogs since 2012, in honor of a University of Scranton alumnus who was blinded in 2011 while deployed to Iraq and now has a service dog from VetDogs. To date, the program has sponsored four dogs, three of which have become guide or service dogs for veterans with disabilities. Photo courtesy Abbey Kennedy/University of Scranton
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Five college students dressed in matching red t-shirts pose with a VetDogs staff member in front of the training center. Two of them are holding a giant facsimile check. The caption reads: Members of the St. Joseph’s College chapter of Student Veterans of America from Patchogue, New York, visited the VetDogs campus in February to show their support for America’s VetDogs. The group seeks to recognize the challenges faced by veterans attending college and to promote understanding between veterans and civilians. Photo by Rebecca Eden