You’re the Reason We Keep Wagging – Thank You!

It’s National Volunteer Week, and we are celebrating the true heart and soul of COPE Service Dogs, — our incredible volunteers!

Whether you’re walking pups in the early morning hours, attending weekly training classes, helping to plan fundraising events, driving our dogs to and from school, or cheering on our teams from behind the scenes, your compassion and commitment ripple outward in ways that change lives. Because of you, our dogs are not just amazing at what they do — they are nurtured, loved, and empowered to fulfill their life-changing roles.

You’ve given your time, your energy, your patience, and most importantly, your heart to our mission and we want you to know: We see you. We appreciate you. We are endlessly grateful for you!

Every memory made, every tail wag shared, and every milestone reached for our clients with physical disabilities, and students in our Canines in the Classroom program is made possible because of your dedication.

This week, and every week, we celebrate YOU!

On behalf of the entire COPE team, THANK YOU for being a vital part of this journey. Your generosity is helping to unleash potential for so many people in our community, and we are so lucky to have you as part of our COPE family.

How can we COPE without our wonderful Puppy Fosters?

A round of a paws for our Volunteer Board of Directors! 

Our Volunteer Drivers put the wow in Bow-wow!

Let’s raise the woof for our Volunteer Sitters!

Anything is paw-sible with our Office & Event Volunteers!

We are mutts about our Community Canine Owners!

Our Mississauga Volunteers are paws-itively amazing!!

From puppy fosters to drivers, and everyone in between – when we say that volunteers are the backbone of our organization, we truly mean it! We’re fur-ever grateful for their dedication, big heart, and wag-nificent support!

John Hill is just one of our 20 amazing volunteer drivers that go the extra mile to get our future service dogs to school. Here’s what John recently had to say about being part of the pack:

“Having a passion for Labrador Retrievers, I was thrilled to find out about the opportunity to volunteer my available time to COPE despite the jealousy of my own two labs. You’ve probably bumped into my Sophie and Emma on the trails in Midhurst. Knowing that I’m contributing to a valuable cause and getting to work with fantastic co-workers, staff and unbelievably kind fosters and sitters, I feel very proud, honored and privileged to represent COPE within the local communities.

Any given day, I may be transporting up to 10 potential service or therapy cherished labs and taking them to participating High Schools for Canines in the Classroom or to Elementary Schools for Reading Buddies. It’s enjoyable to see the students take ownership of their role in helping to train their assigned tail wagging partners and assisting younger children with their reading development. History has shown that the program has helped decrease anxiety, increase students grades, attendance, learning skills and confidence.

What is the best part of all? Knowing at the culminating end of one journey, another journey begins when a service dog is matched with its partner and knowing how life changing it will be for both. I was just a small part of that journey.”

To our incredible team of volunteers,

thanks for being part of the COPE family!