Paws in Wonderland
October 3, 2024 @ 5:30PM — 8:30PM Mountain Time (US & Canada) Add to Calendar
Zions Technology Center: 7860 Bingham Jct Blvd Midvale, UT 84047 Get Directions
Support ITA in enhancing quality of life through the human-animal bond!
Join us for a night of enchantment at "Paws in Wonderland," ITA's annual fundraiser! Experience an evening filled with magical cuisine and drinks, whimsical entertainment, and both silent and live auctions. You'll have a chance to pet some therapy animals and opportunities to win fantastic prizes through various FUNdraising activities. This event also celebrates the 25th Anniversary of Intermountain Therapy Animals' Reading Education Assistance Dogs (R.E.A.D.) program. Come support Intermountain Therapy Animals and be part of a memorable celebration!
Intermountain Therapy Animals (ITA) is a non-profit organization founded in Salt Lake City in 1993. We provide animal-assisted interactions and therapies to the communities in Utah and Montana, and we have affiliate organizations across the US. ITA alone has over 300 therapy teams who visit over 170 facilities spending time with individuals who are in need and going through some of the most difficult experiences of their lives.
Our therapy teams visit those who are physically or developmentally disabled, emotionally or psychologically impaired, lonely or suffering from depression, in settings ranging from hospitals, counseling centers, nursing, extended care and memory care centers, detention homes, schools and libraries.
Research has shown that animals can have a significant positive impact for people with a whole range of diagnoses and situations. ITA animals can induce immediate physiological improvements, including lower blood pressure, slower breathing, greater calm and relaxation. They go on to enhance therapeutic goals that include:
Empathy • Physical Contact • Outward Focus • Nurturing • Mental Stimulation • Rapport • Acceptance of Self and Situation • Patient Compliance • Socialization
This year's fundraiser will celebrate Reading Education Assistance Dogs' (R.E.A.D.®) 25th Anniversary. The mission of the R.E.A.D. program is to improve the literacy skills of
children through the assistance of registered therapy teams as literacy
mentors. The R.E.A.D. program improves children’s reading and communication skills by employing a powerful method: reading to an animal. But not just any animal. R.E.A.D. companions are registered therapy animals who volunteer with their owner/handlers as a team, going to schools, libraries and many other settings as reading companions for children.
R.E.A.D. is the first and foremost program that utilizes therapy animals to help kids improve their reading and communication skills and also teaches them to love books and reading. It’s been growing around the world since November of 1999 when ITA launched it here in Salt Lake City. More than 7,200 therapy teams have trained and registered with the program and are going strong!
Today, thousands of registered R.E.A.D. teams work throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico and 26 other European, Asian, Central American, and South American countries. R.E.A.D. is one of those ideas that, in the words of Bill Moyers, “pierces the mundane to arrive at the marvelous.”
