Thank You for Celebrating With Us!
Thursday, June 12, 2025
North Central Training Center, New Albany, OH
Thank you to everyone who joined us in celebrating a remarkable milestone — 50 years of leading with independence. Our golden anniversary gala was an unforgettable evening filled with joy, impact, and inspiration under the lights of our North Central Training Center.
Together, we raised critical funds to support the mission of Canine Companions: providing expertly trained service dogs to children, adults and veterans with disabilities — entirely free of charge.
About Canine Companions
Since 1975, Canine Companions has been the gold standard in providing expertly trained service dogs, free of charge, to those in need. We provide service dogs to adults, children and veterans with disabilities and facility dogs to professionals working in healthcare, criminal justice and educational settings. Join us in celebration of Canine Companions 50th anniversary and help make this mission possible.
Emma and Service Dog Midas
With Service Dog Midas by her side, Emma is brave enough to take on anything. At 15 years old, Emma experienced a cerebrospinal fluid leak that led to a diagnosis with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. After missing a year of high school, becoming a wheelchair user and undergoing her first spinal cord surgery and extensive rehab, much seemed to be suddenly out of reach for Emma.
Until one week before her freshman year of college, when she graduated with her first Service Dog Zia.
“All of a sudden, I could say yes to things,” Emma says.
Between opening heavy doors, pulling a laundry basket and picking up dropped items, Zia made even the smallest aspects of life feel more accessible for Emma.
But it wasn’t just physical tasks that Zia helped with.
“When I’m the girl with the dog, people aren’t afraid to talk to me,” Emma says, adding that Zia brought her confidence back.
Now, her second Service Dog, Midas, is picking up where Zia left off, helping Emma earn her degree while working at the University Archives and fulfilling her role on the executive board of her college’s Canine Companions puppy raising club.
Meanwhile, Zia is now a certified Canine Companions Therapy Dog, working with Emma and her mom to help people feel special and powerful, the way she first did for Emma.
While there will always be parts of the future that are unknown, Emma doesn’t worry about them anymore because she knows one thing is certain: her service dog will be by her side.
“They do so much more than I even realized they could,” Emma says.