The North Battleford Lions hosted the dog guide bikers for a barbecue at the Lone Star Hotel Saturday.
The dog guide bikers, who are members of the Saskatoon Millennium Lions Club, were looking for new pledges for their foundation.
In the early 1980s, Lions Clubs across Canada sought to develop a national project to reflect their service to Canadians with visual impairments. The result was the Lions Foundation of Canada and its program, Canine Visions Canada, which was established in 1985. Since then, the foundation has grown to include additional dog guide programs. These include hearing ear, service, seizure response, autism assistance and a newly introduced diabetic alert dog guide. Overall, they have helped more than 2,400 people.
“It kind of feels like when you give a gift at Christmas,” Tom Armstrong, member of the Saskatoon Millennium Lions Club said.
“It feels good to give, that’s how it feels for us when we raise money and we give the gift of a dog to somebody.”
Armstrong also talks about how appreciative the parents are upon receiving a guide dog for their child.
“When we give a service dog for a child, they’ll say ‘the freedom we have now,’ because they don’t have to worry. They know the dog is guiding them and looking after them.”
Lions Foundation of Canada's mission is to assist Canadians with a medical or physical disability by providing them dog guides at no cost. To do this, the foundation operates Dog Guides Canada, a national training school and charity that assists individuals with disabilities through specialized dog guide programs. These dog guides are provided at no cost to eligible Canadians from coast to coast, despite costing $25,000 to train and place. The foundation relies on donations from individuals, service clubs, foundations and corporations and does not receive any government funding.
So far, the ride has raised around $4,000, but the riders are looking to increase that number. Armstrong says it’s hard to describe how good it feels to help people by just volunteering.
Now the largest school of its kind in Canada, the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides’ head office is located in Oakville, Ont. and has a breeding and training facility in Breslau, Ont.
