Hand in Paw opens renovated HQ, plans more therapy teams

Animal therapy teams trained by Hand in Paw serve people of all ages at more than 100 schools, hospitals and other facilities in North Central Alabama and Tuscaloosa. And the demand for animal therapy is growing, according to the nonprofit.

So Hand in Paw, using a $2 million capital campaign, recently completed a major renovation and expansion of its headquarters.

The facility is now called the Beth Franklin Building, after the group’s founder. About 100 donors, friends, employees and volunteers watched and cheered on Jan. 24 as Franklin cut a yellow ribbon to mark the opening of the building, located on 38th Street South.

After a year of construction, the building has become a sleek, modern facility with a large training room for the volunteer handlers and dogs that make up the therapy teams and a hospital simulation room donated by Children’s of Alabama. Before the new facility, Hand in Paw had to rent space elsewhere to train its teams, according to Franklin.

“We needed a place to do it on site and add more teams quickly and give them more training opportunities,” she said prior to the ribbon-cutting.

There is also space in the Franklin building for community events and volunteer orientations.