Gracie, a five-year-old Golden Retriever and comfort dog, is on her way to Orlando, Florida to help survivors of the shooting that occurred early Sunday morning.
Gracie will be traveling from her home in Davenport, Iowa to Orlando to visit hospitals and local churches, offering love and comfort to those affected by this tragedy, News 10 reports.
Gracie works with Davenport’s Trinity Lutheran Church as part of their Charity K-9 comfort dog program. She has previously helped survivors of the Sandy Hook shootings in 2012 as well as the Yarnell HIll Fire in 2013. The Golden Retriever Comfort dogs from Lutheran Church Charities received an honorable mention from the AKC Humane Fund Awards for Canine Excellence in 2013. Learn more about these comfort dogs here.
Two of Gracie’s handlers, Scott and Sandy, will be accompanying her, as well as another comfort dog named Katie and three of Katie’s handlers. The group will be joined by comfort dogs from Illinois, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Texas, according to Gracie’s Facebook post.
“Her purpose is to share love and compassion with those who are suffering,” Jane Marsh-Johnson, one of Gracie’s handlers told News 10.
“The dogs do more for those suffering than human beings can do,” she said.
See the dogs giving their support to the people of Orlando in the video below:
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