A local charity which trains service dogs has joined forces with a construction workwear brand to fundraise for therapy dog visits and mental health awareness.
Logan residents Craig and Tracey Murray, who own Empower Assistance Dogs, partnered with social impact clothing line TradeMutt early this month to design and release a custom workwear shirt.
Proceeds from the shirts will go towards Empower’s therapy dog training program and TradeMutt’s free mental health support program for blue collar workers.
TradeMutt is known for its funky hi-vis workwear shirts for tradies.
The idea for the partnership evolved naturally after the Murrays trained a therapy dog to assist with TradeMutt’s mental health program.
“We asked TradeMutt to do a custom shirt for us and in the last couple of weeks we’ve gotten our first shirt, and it looks pretty good, I must say,” Mrs Murray said.
“It’s all about mental health for TradeMutt, so where we fit in is we run a therapy dog team, so we not only train assistance dogs, we do therapy visits to places like hospitals, hospices and schools.”
The bright orange design has Empower’s logo plastered over it, featuring a pictogram of a person in a wheelchair patting a service dog.
The shirt was revealed for the first time in the community last week when Empower’s volunteers wore them to a presentation for the year 10 health students at Shailer Park State High School.
The Murrays became the first fully accredited organisation in Australia to train all three types of service dogs: guide dogs, hearing dogs, and assistance dogs.
Their speciality rests in not only training the dogs but transitioning them to their handlers.
Each dog costs approximately $30,000 to train.
Empower relies on the community’s support for this. It comes through a combination of school-based training programs for the dogs, which may soon involve school students around Logan, and sponsorship arrangements with local businesses.
Blackout Coffee and Catering at Crestmead is one of those sponsors.
“Even when COVID was on and they were struggling themselves to stay afloat, they still donated to fund a dog for a person with a disability,” Mrs Murray said.
In 2009, the Queensland government brought in the first legislation for service dogs, aimed at shaping standards of best practice for the dogs.
“My husband and I were on the stakeholder panel helping the government with that legislation,” she said.
“We were the first people accredited under the act in this country.”
They started off as accredited individual trainers before becoming Empower in 2016.
“We realised we had to grow, we needed to expand our breeding program, have puppy raisers, and needed to be able to help more people, and that’s when we started the charity,” she said.
