Group providing guide dogs to blind and visually impaired pursues vast expansion
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A group in Columbus that trains and pairs guide dogs with blind and visually impaired individuals is putting millions of dollars into projects to expand its scope.
The nonprofit Pilot Dogs has been around in Franklinton since 1950. Since CEO Jim Alloway joined Pilot Dogs, it has expanded its services to not only provide guide dogs to the blind and visually impaired, but to transition dogs that fail to become guides into other roles, such as bombs or narcotics, therapy, and PTSD for veteran roles.
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“What we’ve tried to do is say, well, those other dogs can have other great service purposes that are not guide dogs,” Alloway said. “We’ve got the knowledge and the resources to train them. So, why don’t we repurpose those dogs into a field or a career where they can be really successful.”
As the nonprofit’s services have expanded, it now seeks to expand its campus and spend a total of $15 million on two other buildings. Recently, it purchased a $1.7 million industrial property at 566 W. Rich St., which Alloway said is just one piece of a greater development of the Pilot Dogs campus.
“It’s really a bigger picture for the property that we occupy and a vision that started long before I got here,” Alloway said.
Alloway said it has been a long-held objective of Pilot Dogs to acquire all of the properties within a three block radius of its campus. The Pilot Dogs campus currently encompasses nearly three full blocks west of Gift Street, between Town and Rich streets.
In addition to the extension of its campus, Pilot Dogs is looking to spend on two $7.5 million building projects, for a total of $15 million. One will include the remodeling of its primary address on 625 W. Town Street, and the other will become Pilot Dogs’ “Puppy Palace,” just west of South Grubb Street.
According to Alloway, these developments will help Pilot Dogs best train its canine students and help the community to its fullest capability.
“All I care about is taking care of our students and being able to help as many people as we possible can,” Alloway said. “When you ask what our mission is, that’s really what it is.”
To move ahead with its projects, Pilot Dogs will need to raise the $15 million.
“If somebody gives us $10, that’s great,” Alloway said. “We’re always thankful for everything.”
Alloway hopes ground will be broken on the projects by May 1, and he said that they should take about a year to complete.
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