Feel like fostering?

The Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, Inc. is accepting applications for its Foster Family Program.

This which is the first step in training guide dogs for people with visual disabilities, the agency said in a statement.

Interested persons must fill out an application available at http://www.fidelco.org/ or by regular mail. Fidelco’s address is 103 Old Iron Ore Road, Bloomfield, Conn., 06002.

Applications also can be requested by e-mail at fosters@fidelco.org and by phone at 860-243-4047.

Upon receipt of the application, requestors will be contacted.

Applicants and their pups must attend Saturday training sessions at Fidelco’s Bloomfield facility to teach their pups basic obedience skills and to socialize the dogs, the statement said.

Fosters keep their pups until it is time to return their dogs to Fidelco for formal guide dog training.

"Fosters are an integral part of our training effort,” Sue Holt Brown, director of the Fidelco Foster Family Program said in the statement. “We’re always on the lookout for additional families that may qualify to raise a Fidelco pup in their homes.”

The Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, Inc., a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Bloomfield, breeds, trains and places its own, unique type of German shepherd guide dogs with people who have visual disabilities, the statement said. It pioneered In-community Placement in the United States; a process that allows guide dog users to be trained in the communities where they live and work, the statement said.

Now in its 50th year, "Fidelco relies solely on the gifts and the generosity of individuals, foundations, corporations and civic organizations that partner with us to “Share the Vision,” the statement said.

“Jewel,” a Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation Puppy is shown in the photo.

Fidelco grant will help give guide dogs to military veterans

The Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, Inc. has announced that it has received a grant of $90,000 from Newman’s Own Foundation "in support of its mission to provide the highest quality German Shepherd Guide Dogs to U.S. military veterans."

Newman’s Own Foundation has since 1997 granted more than $250,000 to Fidelco, the organization said in a statement.

Fidelco most recently placed Guide Dog “Legend,” with Tech Sgt. Matthew Slaydon, USAF (ret.), the statement said.

"Slaydon was injured in Kirkuk, Iraq when a roadside bomb exploded as he attempted to disarm it. He suffered the loss of his sight, his left arm and traumatic brain injury," the statement said. "Fidelco’s staff and trainers worked with Slaydon so that he could use his prosthetic arm with his new guide dog. He then completed his In-community Placement with the help of a Fidelco placement specialist in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona."

“Thanks to the ongoing support of Newman’s Own Foundation, we will be able to support Sgt. Slaydon and other blinded American military heroes like him,” Eliot D. Russman, CEO and executive director of the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, Inc., said in the statement. “Their generosity gives us the capability to expand our outreach and client development efforts, and to provide Fidelco German Shepherd Guide Dogs to more injured military veterans than ever. Freedom and independence are certainly not free of costs and Newman's Own Foundation has clearly demonstrated this fact with its most recent financial support.”

Bob Forrester, president of Newman’s Own Foundation noted, also in the statement, that Fidelco is "committed to providing guide dogs to our brave military veterans who have lost their sight.”

“We are proud to support their efforts to improve the lives of America’s servicemen who have given so much for their country,” he said.

To carry on Paul Newman's philanthropic legacy, Newman’s Own Foundation donates net royalties and profits after taxes from the sale of Newman’s Own products to charity. To date, Paul Newman and Newman’s Own Foundation have given over $295 million to thousands of charities around the world, the statement said.

Fidelco, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Bloomfield, Conn., breeds, trains and places its own, unique type of German Shepherd Guide Dogs with people who have visual disabilities, the statement said.

Editor's note: The information in this post was provided wholly by Fidelco

Dogs everywhere are crying

She knew how much a dog can give

Roberta C. Kaman, president and co-founder of The Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, Inc. has diedm the organization said in a statement.
“We are saddened by Robbie’s passing,” Eliot D. Russman, Fidelco’s CEO an executive director said in the statement. “We will miss her presiding presence in our midst, the vision she brought to our organization and the passion with which she served our clients.”
Dogs and dog training were always in Kaman’s life, the statement said.
Kaman recently said in “Trust the Dog,” the new book about Fidelco, “I’ve never been without a dog,” the statement said,
"From the dogs on her grandfather’s farm, to the dogs her father trained for hunting, to the thousands of dogs she bred for Fidelco, canines were an important part of her life," the statement said.
Kaman was "bitten by the training bug early on when she attended a dog training class" in Manchester, Conn, the statement said.
"She proved to be a natural trainer and the town asked her to stay on and help with the classes," the statement said.
As she said, “Apparently I had an ear for the music.”
Over the years, Kaman and her friends raised and showed several breeds, including standard poodles, the statement said and she spent time mentoring with Dr. Allen Leventhal at his veterinarian practice in Bolton, Conn., the statement said.
She got her first German shepherd in 1958, "sowing the seeds for what would become a lifelong fascination with this extraordinary breed of dog," the statement said.
"In 1960, Kaman joined a local German shepherd club in New Haven and met Charlie Kaman, her future husband and founder of Kaman Aerospace. Together, they helped form the Fidelco Breeders Cooperative, the beginnings of what is now the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation," the statement said.
The cooperative bred German shepherds for 20 years and donated them to guide dog schools and law enforcement.
From 1980, their home-based hobby grew dramatically to become an internationally accredited guide dog foundation that has placed more than 1,300 guide dogs with blind and visually disabled clients throughout the U.S. and Canada, the statement said.
Kaman was instrumental in developing the Fidelco “breed within a breed;” a German shepherd with the temperament, work ethic and stamina suited to guiding people who are blind, the statement said.
Fidelco "also pioneered its “In-community Placement” program in the U.S. Using this process, the Fidelco client is trained with the guide dog in their home area, allowing them to be more productive quickly," the statement said.
Kaman received numerous awards, including the prestigious Migel Medal Award from the American Foundation for the Blind and was honored as a Melvin Jones Fellow, the Lions Club’s highest level of recognition.
“When I get a positive phone call from a person with a Fidelco guide dog, I am always grateful,” Kaman is quoted as saying in the statment. “I realize that we’ve managed to help someone in a very personal and important way.”
The Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, Inc., a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Bloomfield, breeds, trains and places a unique type of German shepherd guide dogs with people who have visual disabilities.
Now in its 50th year of service, Fidelco relies solely on the gifts and the generosity of individuals, foundations, corporations and civic organizations that partner with us to “Share the Vision.”

In the photo: Roberta C. “Robbie” Kaman, president and co-founder of the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, Inc.

Editor's note: The information in this post was provided wholly by Jack Hayward, It is only lightly edited here.