P H O T O S B Y R A D H I K A C H A L A S A N I
TRAINING INMATES TO RAISE SERVICE DOGS FOR THE DISABLED AND EXPLOSIVE DETECTION CANINES FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT
BOARD of DIRECTORS Summer 2009
Katherine Bang Photo Research Editor, Vanity Fair Whitney Bracco CLOSE TO THE HEART Matthew S. Cashion Jr. Principal, NYL Capital Partners Christina Dennis Denis J. Fajardo Captain, United States Army Brian Fischer Commissioner, New York State Department of Correctional Services Lori Gevalt Glenn S. Goord Former Commissioner, New York State Department of Correctional Services Joan LaCaille In Memoriam Daniel Lobitz Partner, Robert A. M. Stern Architects Cynthia Mas Bonnie McCausland Juliet Patsalos-Fox Sergeant Allen Hill Gloria Gilbert Stoga and his service President/Founder, Puppies Behind Bars dog, Frankie, visit the P.B.B. ADVISORY BOARD classroom at Fishkill Correctional Matthew P. Cuviello Facility Major, United States Army Robert E. Denham “THERE IS NOTHING IN THE WORLD moved by Close’s report from the Fishkill Partner, Munger, Tolles & Olson, L.P. like puppy love — that is something I know for Correctional Facility in Beacon, N.Y., where men Albert R. Dowden sure,” said Oprah Winfrey at the start of her May who are serving time for manslaughter and other President and Chief Executive Officer 15 show featuring five-time Oscar nominee violent crimes showed the depth of their affection (Ret.), Volvo North America Corporation Glenn Close and Puppies Behind Bars. But as for the puppies they raise, and their gratitude for Henry A. Kissinger Close described the work of P.B.B.—highlighting the chance to give back by raising the pups to be Chairman, Kissinger Associates, Inc. the way one of the dogs donated through its “Dog service dogs. Nancy Kissinger Tags” program has changed the life of Sergeant Several inmates were in tears as they spoke William J. McDonough Allen Hill, a soldier wounded in Iraq—Winfrey about what the program has meant to them. Vice Chairman, Merrill Lynch was both increasingly amazed and moved. “I’m a “Being around this puppy opened me up,” said mess,” she told Close at one point, dabbing at her one. Another described how P.B.B. gave him “a Libby Pataki eyes with a handkerchief. sense of love and support—something that I Former First Lady, State of New York It would have taken a heart of stone not to be continued on page 2 Alan J. Stoga Publisher, FLYP 10 East 40th Street, 19th floor, New York, NY 10016; 212- 680-9562 , fax: 212-689-9330, [email protected] “You Don’t Look service dog, but that person does not look disabled, simply say, “What a THE IMPO beautiful dog you have!” If you want to Disabled…” know more, you might ask if they served in Iraq or Afghanistan and thank them for their service to our country, AS P.B.B.’S DOG TAGS PROGRAM then tell them how gorgeous their dog “PILLAR” may have been the last word to continues to grow, we continue to learn is and let them go on their way. suit Joan LaCaille—she was très chic, bird- from our wounded veterans about ways to slender, and constantly on the go—but that improve it. Sergeant Bill Campbell, the 2. If the veteran wants to talk, he or she was what she became for Puppies Behind first of our Dog Tags recipients, helped us will make that clear; but don’t expect the Bars. She could be counted on for board rework our application; Sergeant Allen vet to engage in conversation with you. If meetings, fund-raisers, and anything else Hill’s experience with a flashback that left he or she doesn’t want to talk, don’t take the organization needed. She was always him on the floor in the fetal position caused it personally. Like you, the vet probably bringing friends in to the prisons, showing us to teach our dogs to dial 911 on the tele - just wants to go to the store and blend in them “her” puppies and “her” inmates, and, phone not only on command, but also with the crowd, so commenting on the sure enough, those friends would be con - when their partner falls beauty of the dog and verted into staunch P.B.B. supporters and down suddenly and leaving it at that is generous donors. stops talking. Corporal the best course of LaCaille was present at the creation of Paul Bang-Knudsen We have been action. P.B.B. and it’s still hard to realize she’s taught us that training gone—she died, very suddenly, on January our dogs how to “pop a delighted to hear 3. It is against the 9, 2009. corner” (which means law to ask someone Eleven years ago, P.B.B. founder and to look both ways comments such as, what their disability president Gloria Gilbert Stoga was still before the vet enters a “She is my right arm; is, but if the veteran trying to get accreditation for the fledgling room) makes going seems to want to charity when Rosetta Miller told her she into unknown build - I don’t know how I speak with you, you was going to introduce her to “a wonderful ings and houses that could ask, “What woman who’s crazy about giraffes.” much easier. would live without her ,” does the dog do for “Giraffes!” Gilbert Stoga said. “Rosetta, This year we started you?” The vet may I’m trying to start a nonprofit about dogs, doing in-home visits or “My life is 180 be happy to tell you not giraffes!” with each of the veter - what the dog does, or But the two hit it off immediately, and ans that received one of degrees different since even give you a small LaCaille became a woman who was crazy our dogs. We know demonstration. He or about giraffes and dogs. Over the next that once a vet gets I got her,” or “She she may ask the dog decade, she would sponsor seven puppies (in home with a dog, situ - makes me whole.” to carry some of the honor of her friends—Miller, Doris Roberts, ations may arise that groceries, or pick up Kitty Gaisman, Ann L. Bronfman, Bobbi were not covered in dropped keys, or even Gordon, and Robert Raeburn—and her training, and we also do a specialized com - beloved brother Brad). Three more were want to see how the dog and the vet are mand like, “Got my back?” sponsored in her honor by her friends. faring. We have been delighted to hear Born Joan Kelleher in 1928, she lived a comments such as, “She is my right arm; I 4. Do not pet the dog. Going out in big, passionate, energetic life, full of travel don’t know how I would live without her,” public is still difficult for some of our and adventure and purpose. She had two or “My life is 180 degrees different since I veterans and their dogs keep them extremely successful careers (first in P.R., and got her,” or “She makes me whole.” grounded and focused. If you pet a psy - then in real estate, where she ended up as One thing that we are also hearing chiatric service dog, the dog will put its Managing Director at Warburg Realty), about is the difficulty our veterans have in focus on you—and take it away from the working tirelessly throughout to protect public. As Glenn Close mentioned on veteran—and that could cause the vet to giraffes and, later, to promote P.B.B. “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” the “hidden feel anxious. Gilbert Stoga will always remember sug - disabilities” of post-traumatic stress disor - gesting a novel celebration for LaCaille’s der (P.T.S.D.) and traumatic brain injury 5. Never, ever feed a service dog. 80th birthday: a party in prison. “There was (T.B.I.) are the signature wounds of the uncharacteristic silence on the other end of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but because Psychiatric service dogs are a means of the phone,” she recalls. “Completely forget - they are invisible, people often do not rec - allowing some of our wounded warriors ting to whom I was speaking, I suggested ognize them. to heal. It takes extraordinary courage for she think about it and get back to me. We would like all veterans to feel com - these vets to go out in the world again ‘Think about it?!,’ Joan erupted. ‘Gloria, fortable when they are out with their service and try to become more whole. Please babykins, I’ve already started writing the dogs, so here are some tips for the rest of us: thank them for what they’ve done for our guest list!’” country, and respect that their dogs are So, on March 5, 2008, Gilbert Stoga 1. If you see someone in the store with a not pets. Thank you. met LaCaille and eight of her friends in the
3 | Puppies Behind Bars | Summer 2009 RTANCE OF KNOWING JOAN
parking lot of the Bedford Hills maximum- joy on Joan’s face. She was in her element. As her friend the columnist Liz Smith security women’s prison. When they got to And while she thought the inmates were noted at the memorial service in February, the inmate-housing unit where Gilbert Stoga giving to her, she was the one doing the LaCaille would take great delight thereafter in had taught class that morning, she couldn’t giving. For two hours that after - telling people, “I spent my 80th birthday in believe her eyes: “The women had noon, there were no barriers— prison!” Also speaking at the service, the transformed the drab prison space of age, or class, or race, or actress Doris Roberts spoke of traveling around into a birthday room. the world with her close They’d hung streamers, Joan LaCaille in Africa, circa 1960; friend of over fifty years. they’d somehow gotten a inset: LaCaille at a P.B.B. cocktail. Another tribute came ‘Happy Birthday’ banner, from Connie, an inmate at and they’d put together Bedford Hills, on behalf of all all the card tables they the women there. “I was could find. entrusted to raise a fragile, “And there, on display, innocent little puppy named were bowls of cookies and Koki, sponsored by Joan’s birthday cake upon birth - friends,” Connie wrote. “Just day cake upon birthday as Koki looked at me without cake upon birthday cake.” judgment, with trust and with The women had stayed love, Joan put her faith in this up until 1:30 a.m. the program, and thereby in me. night before, baking. In Rest peacefully, Joan. Because prison, there are no refrig - of you, I live more peacefully.” erators or ovens; there are Hundreds of other people no stoves. The inmates connected with P.B.B.— had only a sink and a inmates, blind people, autistic microwave. “And from kids, disabled veterans, and that,” Gilbert Stoga says, those who have been protect - “they baked and baked and ed by explosive-detection baked. They made square canines—can say the same. cakes and rectangular To honor her work, P.B.B. cakes and three round has started a Joan LaCaille cakes. They cut holes in Memorial fund. All proceeds the middle of the round cakes and arranged between ‘free’ and ‘incarcerated.’ There will go to the Dog Tags program, which them to form an ‘8’ and an ‘0.’ were just women sitting around, laughing, donates fully trained service dogs to wounded But what was most memorable about and eating cake, celebrating the birthday veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. that day, she adds, “was the look of pure of someone very dear to them.” Joan LaCaille’s passion lives on.
I would like to sponsor and name a puppy
M (minimum donation: $3000.) Name: ______R Please accept my donation for :
O 1 puppy’s weekend A sleeping crate Address: ______visit to NYC ($35) for 1 puppy ($85) F Leashes and bowls Other amount City: ______
N for 1 puppy ($50)
Please charge my credit card: State & Zip:______O I Visa MasterCard AmEx T (Please list name as it appears on card. List billing address.) Telephone: ______Fax:______
A Card Number: ______Exp:______
N E-mail: ______Amount enclosed: $ ______O (Tax ID # 13-3969389) Please mail your tax-deductible contribution with this form to: Add my friend to your mailing list PUPPIES BEHIND BARS | 10 East 40th Street, 19th floor, New York, NY 10016 D
Puppies Behind Bars | Summer 2009 | 4 Ways to give to Puppies Behind Bars
1. Donate gifts, large or small, via check $3,000, which entitles you to name the by Vibram, and another two dollars will or credit card. pup. Once the dog enters prison, we will be donated. Make checks payable to Puppies Behind Bars send you an announcement card and quar - and send to 10 East 40th Street, 19th Floor, terly updates, written by the individual 5. Build awareness of P.B.B. online New York, NY 10016. To make a credit-card inmate raiser and distributed by our New Join P.B.B.’s Facebook Cause page donation call 212.680.9562 or go to York office. These letters serve as strong (http://apps.facebook.com/causes/20433) http://puppiesbehindbars.com/support.asp. testimony to the growth of both the puppy and our growing online community of and inmate as they work towards a com - 6,000 and counting. Keep up on P.B.B. Monthly contribution mon goal of serving humanity. news, help raise $3,000 for our first online Donate on a regular basis by setting up a puppy sponsorship, and vote on the puppy’s recurring contribution online via 3. In lieu of gifts name. Invite your online community of networkforgood.org. In lieu of bar or bat mitzvah, wedding, or friends and family, keep up on P.B.B. news, anniversary gifts, share your special occa - and set up pledge goals. Facebook dona - Tribute gift sion with your favorite charity. Please con - tions are distributed to us through a trusted Send a card to a friend or loved one in tact Liz Smith (212.680.9562) if you wish third party, Network for Good. honor of a special occasion—birthday, wed - to donate funds from an event. ding, anniversary, etc. 6. Getting married? 4. Purchase products at FetchDog.com Now you can support P.B.B. by register - Memorial gift FetchDog.com donates to P.B.B. 6% of ing with the I Do Foundation. From hon - Send a card in memory of a loved one or a all sales that originate from our website. eymoons and invitations to gifts and wed - four-legged friend. Click on the FetchDog.com banner, ding favors, the I Do Foundation allows then go shopping for your pup. While couples and their guests to make wed - 2. Sponsor and name a puppy you’re there, purchase the Chewy Shoe, ding-related purchases that generate Sponsoring a puppy-in-training costs a patriotic toy made especially for P.B.B. donations for charity. The I Do Foundation's Charity Registry service also makes it easy for guests to make dona - tions in lieu of gifts. All of these services A puppy is sponsored and named are available free of cost at A PBB Story — From and placed into the arms of her IDoFoundation.org. Check it out today, highly-skilled inmate raiser who and be sure to select P.B.B. as the benefi - Playful Pup to Loyal is prepped with textbooks and ciary of your charitable wedding. supplies. Throughout the 18 Working Dog months that she spends in 7. Convert AMEX Membership Rewards prison she outgrows into donations sor many collars and leash - on Donate with your AMEX card or redeem Sp me es and devours bags na and bags of dog food. Membership Rewards points to make a nd y! donation. 1,000 Membership Rewards a upp She and her inmate a p raiser attend weekly points equal a $10 donation. Go to ameri - PBB-instructed classes canexpress.com/give to support P.B.B. where they learn to use her training toys. She leaves prison PUPPIES’ CORNER for routine veterinary check-ups and ventures out with specially How your child can help …
I trained volunteers on socializa - N
A 1. Sweet support S tion outings that expose her to A L
A family life, restaurants, stores Have a bake sale or set up a lemonade H
C and nursing homes. Upon gradu - stand, and donate the proceeds to P.B.B. A
K ating, she earns her working dog I
H 2. Common Cents
D certification and is ready to A R serve a disabled individual or law Common Cents is an educational, nonprof - Y B enforcement official. it organization which specializes in creating H P
A Be part of a PBB story and and managing service-learning programs R
G for young people. To find out how your
O support us! T
O child and his or her classmates can get H
P involved, go to commoncents.org.
Puppies Behind Bars | Summer 2009 | 5 CLOSE TO THE HEART Afghanistan, the invisible wound.” He has other inmates in the Fishkill program, continued from page 1 traumatic brain injury (T.B.I.) and severe Sgt. Hill and Frankie’s visit was a rare post-traumatic stress disorder (P.T.S.D.). joy. “It’s seldom that we see our dogs never had in my life.” “Frankie has been his lifeline to reality,” the when they leave here,” Roberto noted. Among the climactic moments Close actress and animal lover reported, telling But all the inmates recognize that giving had captured on film was the prison meet - Oprah how the dog helps Sgt. up the pups they love so much is ing between Sgt. Hill and the inmates who Hill deal with paralyzing, “our way to repay a society raised Frankie, the yellow Lab who is now violent flashbacks. that we took so much the sergeant’s constant companion. Sgt. For Frankie’s pri - from,” as Edwardo put Hill is suffering, in Close’s words, from mary puppy-raiser, it. “To see you is “the signature injury of Iraq and Roberto, and the breathtaking,” he told Sgt. Hill. Glenn Close, Oprah Winfrey, Choking up as he and the Chewy Shoe for Sadie; spoke, a fellow inset: Vibram, a service dog in training, demonstrates inmate named Steve the “hold” command said, “What better gift can we give you, a man who has served his country in its time of need, than this beautiful dog?” Appearing by Skype from Kansas City, Sgt. Hill ’s wife, Gina, described the difference between the husband she saw go off to war—life of the party, energetic, involved with his family and community— and the man who returned, gripped by dark - ness and fear. “Frankie has brought my sons their daddy home,” she said. “She has lit the light back in him that had been so dark for the last year and a half.” Sgt. Hill ’s coura - geous visit to thank Frankie’s inmate puppy- raisers was one proof of that renewal. Close’s steadfast, creative support for P.B.B. is consistent with her involve - ment with FetchDog.com, a leading source of information and products for passionate dog-lovers. Her blog, Lively Licks: Profiles of Dogs and Their People , which explores the impact of dogs on our quality of life, appears regularly on the FetchDog.com site. At the end of the show, Close had a special gift for Oprah’s dog, Sadie: a red,
S white, and blue “Chewy Shoe” dog toy, N O
I shaped like the sole of a shoe. The toy, T C
U available at FetchDog.com , is manufac - D
O tured by Vibram Pet Products, a division of R P Quabaug Corporation, which makes most O P
R of the soles currently in use by the U.S. A
H military. FetchDog.com and Vibram each / S
N will donate a dollar from the sale of every R U
B Chewy Shoe to P.B.B.’s Dog Tags program. E
G (For purchase details, see “Paws for R
O Applause,” back page.) E G Oprah received her Chewy Shoe with Y B gratitude and laughter. Just before the H P
A show, she told her audience, Sadie had R
G been caught chewing on one of Oprah’s O T
O Prada shoes. Score another one for H P FetchDog.com , Vibram, and P.B.B.
2 | Puppies Behind Bars | Summer 2009 TEACHING BY EXAMPLE expand P.B.B.’s development efforts under the guidance of Annie Former Bedford Hills puppy-raisers Geraldine Hardwick and Nora Teillon, who, after serving six years as director of development, has Moran , who have worked in P.B.B.’s office since being paroled, been promoted to vice president. recently added to their responsibilities by becoming the newest assis - tant instructors at the Fishkill and Mid-Orange men’s prisons, TEILLON TIMES THREE respectively. Both are excited to be able to share in the puppy-train - Congratulations to P.B.B. vice president Annie Teillon and her ing experience again. “Puppies Behind Bars has enriched my life and husband, Geoff , who became first-time parents on May 15 with I am grateful to be a part of this organization,” says Hardwick. the birth of their daughter, Atlee Cline Teillon . Moran adds, “I appreciate this opportunity to grow as a person, as a leader, and as a part of P.B.B.” Illustrating that it is possible to turn MATCH MAKING their time of incarceration into something positive, they have become A $125,000 challenge grant P.B.B. PAWS FOR role models for other puppy-raisers. received to support Dog Tags has been matched, two months before the July APPLAUSE DEVELOPMENT DUO 31, 2009 deadline. The $250,000 P.B.B.’s staff has expanded. In February, P.B.B. welcomed Eric raised by this dollar-for-dollar matching initiative will help Barsness as director of foundation development and communications, P.B.B. train and place more service dogs with veterans returning and Liz Kang Smith as director of finance and individual giving. home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with physical or Barsness’ diverse background includes 17 years with Condé Nast pub - emotional disabilities. lications, most recently as creative services director for Architectural Digest. “I am delighted to apply the experience I gained in the corpo - IF THE SHOE FITS, FETCH IT rate and performing arts worlds to the important work of P.B.B.,” FetchDog.com ™, an on-line community and leading supplier of says Barsness. “I believe firmly in the power of dogs to transform goods for dog owners, and Vibram ™, the major provider of human lives.” Smith, who has worked in both the private and public footwear soles for the U.S. military, have teamed up to create the sector, echoes his enthusiasm: “If you are a dog lover, believe in Dog Tags Chewy Shoe in honor of the sacrifices made by our vet - redemption, appreciate the safety explosive-detection canines provide erans. The red, white, and blue dog toy features a durable sole and and the healing power of service dogs, then please consider support - a tough cord for throwing or tug-of-war. With every Chewy Shoe ing P.B.B. I am thrilled to be working at an organization that I can purchase, $2 will be donated to P.B.B.’s Dog Tags program. Visit truly connect with.” Barsness and Smith will work in tandem to FetchDog.com or call 800.595.0595 to order (item #T20011).
10 East 40th Street, 19th floor New York, NY 10016