The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust (Vancouver, WA) awarded Dogs for the Deaf with a grant, to support the new Second Training Facility now under construction. This is the largest private grant the 40-year nonprofit has ever received.
CENTRAL POINT, OR; In August, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust (Vancouver, WA) awarded a $300,000 grant to support the construction of Dogs for the Deaf’s (DFD) new Second Training Facility. “We’re ecstatic about this grant award and very appreciative of the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust’s significant commitment to our important work and planned growth,” stated CEO Blake Matray.
Dogs for the Deaf is in the midst of major expansion, with groundbreaking on a new Second Training Facility taking place in November 2016 on the 18,852 sq. ft. 40-kennel building. The new Training Facility is expected to be completed in Spring 2018 and will further compliment DFD’s existing 22-kennel building.
“The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust is pleased to partner with Dogs for the Deaf to increase their Assistance Dog training capacity and help even more clients live better lives,” noted the Trust.
Once the Second Training Facility is operational, Dogs for the Deaf will triple the number of dogs that come to the organization, receive professional training, and ultimately get placed in forever homes across the United States. The additional kennels in the Second Training Facility will allow DFD to rescue more dogs annually. DFD’s three primary program areas include Hearing Dogs, Program Assistance Dogs, and Autism Assistance Dogs.
Dogs for the Deaf is celebrating its 40th-anniversary in 2017, having assisted more than 1,400 dogs since 1978. The late Roy G. Kabat founded Dogs for the Deaf in southern Oregon’s Applegate Valley, and it was not until 1989 that DFD moved to its current 40-acre campus in Central Point, OR.
The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust was created in 1975 to enrich the quality of life in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. Their mission focuses on serving individuals, families, and communities across the Pacific Northwest by providing grants and enrichment programs to organizations that strengthen the region’s educational, social, spiritual and cultural base in creative and sustainable ways.
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Dogs for the Deaf is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization focusing on the training and placing of Hearing Assistance Dogs, Program Assistance Dogs, and Autism Assistance Dogs. Dogs for the Deaf has been rescuing dogs from shelters and training them to become Hearing Dogs and Program Dogs with qualified clients throughout the United States for forty years. The Autism Assistance Dog program is just in its second year, though already showing terrific results with three dogs placed locally in southern Oregon’s Rogue Valley. In fiscal year 2016-17, this national organization placed 23 Assistance Dogs across the country.
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