Understanding the benefits of pet therapy, Ava McCollum-Beaves of Kingsport found a need to be filled. She worked with Isaiah 117 House, which serves children, and the Alliance of Therapy Dogs to create a program that serves Isaiah 117 House locations in Sullivan and Washington counties. She earned a prestigious Girl Scout Gold Award in 2025 for her Isaiah 117 House Pet Therapy Program project.

Gold Award Girl Scouts are rock stars, role models and real-life heroes who address issues they’re passionate about by using everything they’ve learned as a Girl Scout to solve an issue. They plan and implement projects that produce lasting change in the community and beyond. It is the Girl Scouts’ highest honor. Ava is also a recipient of the Joyce Maienschein Leadership Grant, which is a local grant fund that provides some financial support to girls on their Silver or Gold Award journeys!

When children come to Isaiah 117 House, it is because they have been removed from their home by the Department of Children’s Services, Tennessee’s public child welfare agency, and are awaiting placement in foster care. The organization does its best to provide safe, loving temporary housing, clean clothes, toys and other items and services to provide care while a good placement is identified.

The removal experience is often a scary and traumatic one, and the wait can take hours or days, so Ava decided to create the program to help children who are in this transitional phase. “Animals are known to provide comfort, companionship and unconditional love, which can help children feel more relaxed and less stressed,” Ava shares.

She found pet therapy volunteers through Alliance of Therapy Dogs, which is an international registry of certified therapy dog teams. The website provides the nonprofit’s objective, “to form a network of caring individuals and their special dogs who are willing to share smiles and joy with people, young and old alike.”

By investing more than 83 hours in retaining and training volunteers, coordinating visits, and gathering and providing supplies, Ava gained and honed a host of skills throughout the process, including project management, advocacy, resourcefulness and resilience. “Persistence was the most important skill needed to complete the project,” she says. “This ties in with good communication with all parties to make sure that all activities were completed.”

Ava ordered supplies such as a dog bed, a children’s book about a therapy dog, some grooming brushes and a Girl Scout tote bag to hold all the supplies for storage at Isaiah 177 House to support pet therapy sessions. She compiled and provided contact data for pet therapy volunteers for each house and discussed her project with the media, being featured in this Kingsport Times News article.

Therapy visits started in April 2024, with about two pet therapy visits each month. Ava was able to gauge success through volunteer surveys.

“I created review forms for the handlers to fill out after the sessions that gauged the children’s reception and effectiveness,” Ava shares. “The feedback from the pet therapy volunteers was very positive and the Isaiah 117 House supervisors and staff were very supportive and enthusiastic about having therapy dogs visit with the children. The feedback indicated that the children enjoyed the visits with the therapy dogs very much!”

Ava hopes her program will serve as a model for other Isaiah 117 Houses.

Congratulations, Ava! Visit girlscoutcsa.org to learn more.