The Sand Canyon Country Club welcomed many furry friends at the Titania K9 Fund’s 8th annual fundraiser with the theme of “Wanted: Wild West Gala” on Sunday afternoon to raise funds for the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles dog therapy program.
Titania K9 Fund committee member, Denise Kane, said that her daughter, Tory Kane, was a CHLA patient when she created an anime superhero figurine named Titania who had a sidekick dog named K9, who battled illness and injury with her superpowers of love, hope and courage.
Her daughter is the inspiration for the fund’s name and its mission.
Denise Kane said that having a dog therapy program at CHLA is important because it can make a patient’s day when they are going through treatment.
“Some of those kids are in the hospital for a long time, so when the dog comes into the room, it lights up their day. They can be themselves. It’s unconditional love,” said Kane.
Attendee Olivia Jarquin said this fundraiser was very important to her and her family after seeing how much the dog therapy program helped her daughter when she was a patient at CHLA.
“As soon as those dogs came into the room, she would turn into a different person,” said Jarquin.
Jarquin said that when a dog would come to her daughter’s room and visit it would change her whole demeanor. Her daughter would become much more attentive, and they appreciated there was something to make her happy while they were at the hospital for long periods of time. Even after her daughter died, Jarquin wanted to keep on supporting the program through the fundraiser.
“A lot of the times, just having a doctor or a nurse or even a parent asking them so many things like, ‘OK, what can I do?’ It can get overwhelming for them,” said Jarquin. “But these dogs don’t ask anything. They just love them. So for me, I would say request the dogs as soon as you can.”
Kate Buhrmaster, head of the Ammerman Family Foundation therapy dog program, said the program has over 100 certified therapy dogs that visit the CHLA. The dogs go floor by floor visiting patients for about 10 to 15 minutes to offer them emotional and physical support.
There were eight certified therapy dogs at the gala. Throughout the event the dogs’ handlers were walking them around letting the guests come and greet them. Several kids would approach the dogs to pet them and get to know fun facts about them and the handlers would give them a picture card of them with their information and other facts about them on the back.
Charlene Lafontant held her therapy dog, Mochi, for attendees to come and pet or hold themselves.
She said that in her time working she has recognized that children and dogs have a natural connection. The dogs not only cheer up patients and doctors through the tough days, but also they can help them keep their blood pressure and heart rates down.
“They (the doctors and nurses) love seeing the dogs as well, because they have a very stressful job, and we’re happy to help them destress so that they can help the patients as well,” said Lafontant.
To her the moments that make the dog therapy program so important and special are when they help the patients, whether they be there for a short time or long time.
“We’ll go into a room and some patients are there just a few days. Some are there very long term,” said Lafontant. “One time, the nurse came up to me afterwards and said that they hadn’t seen that patient smile in months. So to have Mochi there really kind of inspired that moment for that child. It just touches your heart, that you’re able to do that.”
