VIA of Doylestown Grant to Help Roxy™ Therapy Dogs Meet Growing Demand

Roxy™ Therapy Dogs, an all-volunteer, 501(c)3 non-profit organization that provides comfort, support, and enhanced learning experiences for children throughout Bucks County today announced they are the recipients of a grant from the Village Improvement Association (VIA) of Doylestown.

The grant supports the VIA’s mission to enhance the health and wellbeing of their communities and is specifically targeted at addressing a growing need for new Roxy volunteer therapy dog teams.

“20.5% of youth worldwide now struggle with anxiety symptoms. Roxy Therapy Dogs is uniquely positioned to help reduce childhood anxiety, stress, and depression—plus improve reading skills for the children in Bucks County,” said Sharon Fleck, President, Roxy Therapy Dogs. “The requests for our volunteer teams keep growing and we want to ensure we never have to say ‘no’ to a child in need. Ideally, we’d have 25 more volunteer teams, but even 10 would help tremendously. This grant from VIA will help us achieve that goal and we’re honored they believe in our mission.”

Currently, Roxy has 78 all-volunteer teams who visit 125 classes each week in the Central Bucks School District in addition to comforting children at the Bucks County Courthouse, universities, events, and pediatric healthcare facilities. Additionally, Roxy™ Responders teams respond to traumatic events affecting children. Volunteers visit 3,200 children per week, yet still cannot meet the demand for the comfort and support provided by their registered therapy dogs.

The grant will be used to spread the word in the local dog-owning community about Roxy and to help find those dogs that are uniquely qualified to do this important work. Outreach through local dog training schools and dog-related events is planned.

“The VIA has been improving health and wellbeing in our area since April 26, 1895. We have a long and proud history of getting things done—like founding Doylestown Hospital (now Penn Medicine Doylestown Health) in 1923. The VIA is proud to be focusing on the mental wellbeing needs in our community and this grant to Roxy Therapy Dogs will ensure our community can help address childhood mental health issues,” said Kathleen Krick, President, Village Improvement Association of Doylestown.

The recruitment campaign will begin in the fall of 2025 and is chaired by Jen Smith, who volunteers with her registered therapy dog, Penny, the Cardigan Welsh Corgi.

About Roxy Therapy Dogs

Roxy™ Therapy Dogs is an all-volunteer, 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Our mission is to bring comfort to children, to enhance the experience of learning, and to enrich the lives of our canine and human volunteers. Roxy Therapy Dogs offers six programs to benefit the health and well-being of school-age children in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Roxy™ Reading, Student Specialized Support, Secondary School Stress Relief, Courthouse Companionship, Roxy™ Responders, and Pediatric Comfort.

To learn if your dog would make a great therapy dog or to volunteer with Roxy Therapy Dogs visit https://www.roxytherapydogs.org/.

About the Village Improvement Association (VIA) of Doylestown

Since 1895, the Village Improvement Association of Doylestown has worked to improve the lives of families in Central Bucks County and the surrounding communities. What began with cleaning the streets to keep the filth out of homes and children’s lungs quickly moved to health care, wellbeing, and education. Since establishing Doylestown Hospital in 1923 VIA has provided educational scholarships, community awards and grants, donations to veteran’s groups, and more. Today, the VIA members continue to support our local communities, provide teen and adult scholarships, help veterans, and maintain the VIA’s historic headquarters and museum, the James-Lorah Memorial Home.

Learn more at https://via-doylestown.org/.