POWERGRAMS

45 thought it would be something we could do together and on into our retirement years." It took a year to qualify as a therapy team with Charlie. "We found the more visits we made, the more we wanted to do it, as we could see a real difference being made," he said. There's a keen distinction between what Hand in Paw does and what HOPE does. Hand in Paw provides animal therapy in more predictable situations in controlled places where visits are planned and people with different needs and situations engage the dogs. HOPE goes into emotionally volatile areas in the wake of events that have caused upheaval and dismay. HOPE teams are required to go through specialized training, such as crisis intervention skills; animal behavior and stress management; critical incident stress management; incident command system training, first aid and CPR, and pet first-aid. In addition, crisis response teams desensitize their dogs to common sights, sounds and smells they may encounter at crisis scenes. While animals other than dogs can be used for therapy, crisis response work is appropriate for dogs only, mostly due to societal norms, since it's common for people to see service dogs or working dogs in public places. But Hand in Paw doesn't shy away from difficult situations. Bedsole and Charlie helped trauma and grief teams serve students at Parker High School aer the prom night car deaths of three students, and at Oak Mountain High aer the deaths of several students this past spring. Safety & Health Director Jennifer Bailey saw a Powerlines article featuring Bedsole and Charlie supporting the Hurricane Irma relief. She recognized that the role HOPE provides to storm and disaster first-responders was directly applicable to supporting Alabama Power's generating plant Emergency Response Teams (ERTs). She invited Bedsole and another canine crisis response team from Georgia to meet the ERTs last June competing in the Southern Company Generation Rodeo at Gulf Power's Plant Smith. The purpose was to introduce the canine teams to the participating ERTs as a resource and demonstrate the value of HOPE. The teams were a hit and lied spirits of support staff and ERT teams. At the end of the day, though, it's making a difference in the lives of others that makes it all worthwhile; as Bedsole explained from his observations in the Keys. "At first, you don't know how much you are impacting individuals until lile coincidences begin to take place. You see individuals plan their schedule to make sure they are around when the HOPE teams come by." Bedsole and Charlie have provided therapy to people at Southern Company facilities, in the Florida Keys and many other locations.

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