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Pentagon Memorial Dedication

Honored by an invitation to the dedication of the Pentagon Memorial due to its efforts at the Pentagon Family Assistance Center in 2001, Blue-Gray Spirit Keepers Therapy Dogs traveled to the Pentagon on September 11, 2008. Representing Delta Society, Therapy Dogs, Inc., and Therapy Dogs International, we joined in remembering those who perished on September 11, 2001 in the attack on the Pentagon.

Attending the emotion-laden ceremony were two of the original therapy dogs from the thirty days at the Pentagon Family Assistance Center in 2001, Howe (Greyhound) and Tasha (Border Terrier). Both slower and greyer, they still greeted and comforted with big hearts, spending time before and after the official observances with family members and others who had come to honor the fallen.

The Dedication ceremony, from the choruses, to the calling of each name accompanied by a single bell toll, to the solitary Bagpipe skirling Amazing Grace, was a once-in-a-lifetime event that we were privileged to attend and witness.

The Memorial, its simple peaceful design full of small details that became evident as you walked among the benches, trees, and water accents, is breathtaking and serene. It was a day of smiles, tears, remembrances, comfort, hugs, solemnity, pride, reflection, and renewal.

Ann Crowe Essig Award

May 2013 - Ann Crowe Essig Award for Community Service awarded by the Salvation Army Women's Auxilary.

"Dr. Leroy Essig presented the Salvation Army Women's Auxiliary's annual Anne Crowe Essig award to Kim Fraser, director of Blue Gray Therapy Dogs, a group of certified dog teams from Fredericksburg, and Stafford, Spotsylvania, King George and Westmoreland counties. The award was presented in May 2013 at the auxiliary's annual volunteer appreciation luncheon hosted by the Fredericksburg Corps of the Salvation Army. The Anne Crowe Essig Award is named for Anne Essig, Dr. Essig's late wife who was a founding member of the auxiliary. It honors an individual or group from the Fredericksburg area who has exhibited outstanding community service." The Free Lance Star http://www.freelancestar.com/2013-07-08/articles/12550/honor-anne-crowe-essig-award-presented/

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