It has been a busy year at North Star, for we are in the midst of creating some very successful placements. This past summer we began six new North Star placements, and these pups have now all been partnered with their children and are being raised and trained with the help of their puppy raising families and training facilities such as St. Hubert’s Dog Training School in Madison, New Jersey. These six children are now beginning their partnerships with their puppies and six families and I are very grateful to her for this act of kindness.

This fall we will place a lovely and intelligent Labrador retriever with two young children who lost their father on September 11th. Although North Star is known for our work with children on the autism spectrum, we are making increasing amounts of placements for children who are grieving a loss or coping with difficult life circumstances. Children who suffer a loss can be helped greatly by a canine partner trained to stay by their side and provide a stable source of love and support.

On September 9th, 2005, North Star Foundation partnered up with United Way on their annual “Day of Caring” to complete a lovely fenced in garden area for a young girl named Ava and her North Star dog, Sienna. This day was very successful, with Interstate Fence & Landscaping donating their services, Chace Lumber and Lyon & Billard donating fencing material, and several local garden shops donating trees and flowers to plant to memorialize the mother that Ava lost in a tragedy last year.

In February of 2006 I spoke before at California State’s University of California’s Developmental Disabilities’ parent’s group with a young boy with autism named Parker and his North Star dog, Candy. This fall we will be creating two placements with two boys that are in this program, thanks to a generous donation by Susan Wente. Susan’s generosity is much appreciated by these two boys as it covered the purchase price of two well-bred puppies, who have recently begun their training program in Los Angeles under the direction of local trainer Becky Chadwick.

After over fifteen years of writing, March 2006 is the publication date for my book, The Golden Bridge, at Purdue University Press. This book documents what we have learned about creating placements with children at North Star since our incorporation. The picture of Justin and his North Star dog, Flash, taken by Pei-Pei Ketron, is the book’s cover shot, and all proceeds from the book’s sale will be donated to support our work at North Star Foundation. The Golden Bridge can be preordered on www.Amazon.com (type my name, “Patty Dobbs Gross” into their search engine to find it.)

The fourth quarter of this year will be all about fund-raising, for this is rewarding but expensive work we do at North Star. I appreciate our loyal supporters who have helped us to create over fifty North Star placements to date with exceptional quality and care.

I thank you in advance for your donation, for your help is greatly needed to continue our work helping children who face challenges.

Warm regards,

Patty Dobbs Gross
Executive Director
North Star Foundation

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