Jul 29, 2022
Dogs for Autism are proud to share
BBC Children in Need‘s video featuring Isabella, one of our autistic partners, with her Autism Assistance Dog, Storm.
Children like Isabella are benefiting from the incredible funding that the organisation gives as an annual contribution to our charity.
Because of your generosity,
BBC Children in Need are able to grant Dogs for Autism the generous general funding for 8 autism assistance dogs a year, every year for the next three years.
As a charity our only limit is financial, so funding such as this makes a substantial contribution to our annual totals. Thank you
BBC Children in Need, this is a life-changing contribution for our partners and their families.
Watch Isabella and Storm
here.
May 17, 2022
Every year during the first weekend in July, Dogs for Autism asks our supporters to ‘Walk a Golden Mile’ for Autism.
This year, to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee, we’re asking our supporters to ‘Walk a Platinum Mile’.
Can you ‘Walk a Platinum Mile’ for us in July and donate £5 for Autism?
Click here to register your interest and we will send you more information about how to take part.
Let’s celebrate Her Majesty’s Jubilee in style!
‘A Paw in the Hand’ for the Jubilee is worth …three cheers to Her Majesty!
Hip, Hip, Horray! Let’s donate today!
We will be ‘Walking a Platinum Mile at the Binsted Fete – see events to find out more!
May 17, 2022
Earlier in April, our CEO Hilary, had the pleasure of opening the recent Lion’s Club Quiz night; a popular event at the Alton British Legion Club, which sees all proceeds donated to local charities. Hilary opened the quiz with an informative talk to the quiz members and introduced the quiz players to one of their beautiful trainee dogs, proudly wearing her Dogs for Autism jacket. On the night the total raised was £500 for the charity which included prizes from a raffle, generously donated by Lion’s members.
Last month Hilary spoke to the Alton Women’s Institute (W.I) and this month in May, Hilary will have the opportunity to share the story behind Dogs for Autism at the next Alton Rotary Club meeting. Planned visits also include the chance for the Crondall First Cubs group to meet some of DfA’s lovely dogs and taking a stall along with more of their fabulous dogs at the Four Marks Jubilee Summer Fete on Sunday 5th June and the Binsted Fete and Dog Show on Saturday 2nd July.
At the Binsted Fete, the Dogs for Autism team will launch a very special fundraising campaign, ‘Walk a Platinum Mile’, a special 1.3-mile family friendly walk to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and raise funds for the charity. Why not bring your four-legged friend and join in the fun? There will be a ‘doggie’ lucky dip and ‘pin the crown’ on the puppy (not a real puppy!), to delight the younger visitors on the day.
Alton Lions Club President, Atul Patel said, “Dogs for Autism is a relatively new local charity which is doing great work in supporting folk with autism – the assistance dogs appear to make such a difference, especially to the lives of young people. We are very lucky to have such an amazing charity operating in Alton and I would like to thank all those folk who came along to the St George’s Day Quiz to support them. Thanks go also to the Royal British Legion Club for hosting the event.”
Apr 20, 2022
April is Autism Awareness Month.
Dogs for Autism have been busy promoting the month by taking part in various activities to help raise awareness and promoting it online.
As well as our ‘A Paw in the Hand’ campaign, launched with a LIVE ‘High Five’ on Facebook on 2nd April which helped raise funds and promoted the awareness of autism, Dogs for Autism has teamed up with the new walking app trundl.
We asked one of our autistic partners to try out the app for us during trundl’s latest ‘community trundl’ with her lovely assistance dog Toby. She gave us some feedback. Here’s her story!
Last week Ellen and her Dogs for Autism dog Toby downloaded the walking app trundl.
trundl is the walking app that ‘gives as you go!’ trundl convert each stride that you take into a donation to your chosen charity, meaning that not only are you exercising but you’re giving to your favourite charity as you walk.
Eager to give it a trial run, Ellen and Toby set off into the town to see what the app was like to use for our autistic partners and their dogs.
Not long into their walk the smell of burgers wafted through the air and caught Toby’s attention! No burgers for Toby this time, but they both enjoyed and lovely cool drink in the sunshine.
Ellen said, “I like technology and thought I’d try the app on a walk through the town with Toby my assistance dog. The notifications were good and very useful. The Community link was great, knowing that so many across the UK are walking for DfA at the same time gave me a reassuring feeling. It’s easy to use, and I would encourage anyone to download it and give it as go. As my dad says in his northern accent, “He’s a good lad Toby!”.
In April a community trundl, (a collective walk for Dogs for Autism) ran for two weeks, designed to amalgamate all the trundl’s that users walked. The collective money was added to by our charity partnership with Oscar Pet Foods. For every walk taken, as part of the community trundl, Oscar’s donated 20p for every kilometre completed. Thanks to their generosity, Oscar’s donated a total of £150 to DfA. The money used will be put towards new training coats and tick & flea treatments for some of the puppies in training.
trundl is available via the app store on your mobile or you can read more on their website: Home – trundl
Look out for the next community trundl coming soon and join in! You don’t have to have a dog to start trundling (but it helps!)
Mar 10, 2022
Dogs for Autism are proud to announce that their Early Days Manager, Gemma Binstead, has successfully completed a sponsored wing walk for the charity, strapped to the wings of a bi-plane!
Gemma, an experienced dog handler and trainer for Dogs for Autism, has raised over £1000 for the charity by flying 700 feet above the ground this March, flying at speeds of up to 130mph and strapped securely to the wings of a bi-plane as it flew above Devon on a chilly Spring morning.
Gemma decided to help Dogs for Autism by fundraising for the charity’s ‘100 Hero Campaign’, in a bid to raise £1000 for the charity over the course of the year. Gemma’s fundraising has proved to be so successful that she has beaten her own target and, combined with a previous Yoga event that she held for the charity, she has raised over her initial target since the start of the year.
Gemma said, ” I am delighted to have been added to the Dogs for Autism’s ‘Hall of Fame’ for their 100 Hero campaign and am thrilled to have set myself this challenge. Like most people I am slightly nervous about heights, but this was a challenge that I thought I would set for myself. There was literally no going back! I wanted to see if I could push myself to take on a new and positive activity, raising funds that might help the lives of the autistic partners and the dogs that I work with. I am so pleased I have been able to raise a thousand pounds for Dogs for Autism”.
Mar 3, 2022
We are proud to share the slighty ‘hair raising’ news that our Early Days Manager and trainer Gemma, will be taking part in an exhilarating ‘wing walk’ for Dogs for Autism this weekend!
Gemma is helping Dogs for Autism raise funds this Spring by taking part in an exciting wing walk challenge in Devon, all part of our 100 Heroes Campaign for 2022.
Help Gemma raise money for DfA here: bit.ly/wingwalk1
Post-event ‘hair raising’ photos of Gemma’s flight coming soon!
