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Senate committee hears emotional testimony for Helping Pause service-dog grant honoring ‘Gilbert’
Summary
A Minnesota Senate committee heard testimony supporting a grant to Helping Pause to sponsor a litter named in memory of Gilbert; advocates described the program’s service-dog training for veterans, first responders and people with disabilities and urged state support to keep services accessible.
Sen. Hemmingsen-Jaeger introduced Senate File 4771 on April 7, asking the Health and Human Services Finance and Policy Committee to approve a state grant to Helping Pause, a Minnesota nonprofit that trains and places service and facility dogs.
The sponsor described the proposal as a way to honor volunteers and a family recently affected by a fatal shooting and said the appropriation would sponsor a breeding "letter" named in memory of Gilbert. "This is really meaningful to me," she told the committee, explaining that volunteers and host families have been central to Helping Pause’s work.
Alyssa Golob, executive director of Helping Pause, told senators the organization has more than 38 years of experience training dogs to assist people with physical disabilities, veterans and first responders with service-related PTSD, and to provide facility dogs for courts, schools and mental-health settings. She described the plan to name and sponsor a litter "Guided by Gilbert," and credited Representative Bierman and caucus members for supporting the idea.
Angie Folie, a graduate team member and client, gave concrete examples of daily tasks service dogs perform: retrieving dropped keys, opening doors, bracing a person to stand after a fall, and turning on lights to reduce anxiety in dark spaces. "The dogs are trained the same but serve different purposes for the population that they are given to," she said, describing both mobility tasks and PTSD supports.
Witnesses emphasized the program’s reliance on donations, sponsorships and volunteer foster homes and noted that recipients pay only a nominal application fee. Committee members thanked the witnesses for personal testimony. There were no questions that altered the bill’s proposal; Senate File 4771 was laid over for possible inclusion.
