Sep 30, 2025
September 30, 2025 – Sarah Barnacle, Worcester Telegram & Gazette
PRINCETON. — They might be cute and uncoordinated now, but this group of puppies is gearing up to become extraordinary service animals with skills to provide independence for those with physical disabilities or auditory impediments, to support individuals with autism or other developmental disabilities, and to assist professionals in hospitals, classrooms and more…
Aug 13, 2025
August 12, 2025 – Josh Brogadir, WCVB-TV
PRINCETON, Mass. — So let me get this straight: You get to play soccer on a summer day, and when training is over, a dog greets you on the sideline?
“Verna, you ready to work? Speak! Oh, good girl. Nice job. Back, back,” said Cathy Zemaitis, NEADS Chief Development and Programs Officer.
This may not seem like a workday to many, but it’s a workday for the players on the pitch and the service dogs from the NEADS program, a nonprofit in Princeton, Massachusetts, that pairs pups with people who need them most.
“(They help by) hitting the handicapped buttons, flipping the light switches on and off, picking things up if they drop it, and just going through life with them, maneuvering their way,” Zemaitis added.
This partnership is with the New England Revolution.
Guess who doesn’t mind getting dripped on by the sweat of Revs defender Will Sands?
And Will’s happy to make a new friend.
“It’s really nice (having the dogs here). Obviously, we’re very competitive. Tensions can get a little tight. Having the dogs around helps diffuse certain situations. Yeah, and just love having them around,” Sands said.
The Revs are getting ready for their next match, and some of these service dogs are not ready yet either; they, too, are in training.
“These dogs are trained largely in five different prisons in Massachusetts and Rhode Island by incarcerated individuals,” Zemaitis added.
So why are the puppies on the pitch?
In August, the Revs will honor a Hero of the Match and her NEADS assistance dog. Plus, the fans get to name a NEADS puppy.
Aug 12, 2025
August 12, 2025 – Paul Connors, The Sun Chronicle
Visit The Sun Chronicle for a photo gallery highlighting a visit by NEADS Service Dogs to the New England Revolutions.
Aug 8, 2025
August 8, 2025 – John Conceison, Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Like so many who were athletes while in school, Erika O’Malley sought an outlet for her competitive nature.
“The last two or three years, I felt I needed to push and motivate myself, and do it outdoors,” said the 34-year-old O’Malley, who played soccer at Oxford High and now lives in the Burncoat area of Worcester. “But when I started, I couldn’t even run a mile.”
That competitive nature quickly kicked in, and she worked her way up to running in a 5K race here and there. Yet she knew she had to drive for more.
“I started looking for something longer,” said O’Malley, who only had run 7 miles once on her own.
There were plenty of factors piquing her curiosity, contributing to her participation in the 7-mile Falmouth Road Race.
Her parents had moved to Mashpee, not far from the course of the Cape Cod classic, now entering its 53rd running. And O’Malley wanted to run while raising money for a charity, and one with which she could share a true connection.
Erika and husband Patrick O’Malley are proud owners of a 9-year-old Australian shepherd Brody. “He’s my pride and joy; I’m a huge animal lover,” she said. “I knew I wanted to run for an animal-based organization.”
Her connection with NEADS World Class Service Dogs (neads.org) couldn’t be more true, and Erika O’Malley will proudly run for Team NEADS for the second straight year, on Aug. 17.
“I love what NEADS does,” said O’Malley, who is a payroll manager, based in Westborough, for the University of Massachusetts president’s office. “I’ve learned so much in the last two years, learning about how they place service dogs. People’s lives change with these dogs, they help people live a more normal life.”
Since 1976, NEADS, located on its expanding campus in Princeton, offers a variety of programs and provides service dogs for veterans with disabilities or PTSD, people with hearing loss, children and adults with a physical disability, and more.
Patrick O’Malley, a Worcester firefighter for the past five years, served five years in the Army, including a stint at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
“I love their veterans program,” Erika O’Malley said. “Anything to do with the military, I’m 100 percent on board.”
According to Hannah Kump, NEADS supervisor of retail and community fundraising, the organization has trained and matched more than 2,000 service dogs, all black or yellow Labs, with clients since ’76, providing life-changing partnerships.
“We have 80 to 100 dogs in training at any one time,” NEADS marketing director Audrey Trieschman said, “and we match between 15 and 25 dogs with clients each year.”
“The Falmouth Road Race has been a staple in our fundraising for the past 12 years,” Kump said, “and it’s been a special way to reach out to new donors.”
Fifteen runners comprise Team NEADS this year, including O’Malley’s best friend, Emily Aubuchont, also of Worcester. Each runner is pledged to raise $1,200, with a team goal of $25,000.
“We can’t express our appreciation enough,” Kump said. “The runners work so hard training and fundraising.”
O’Malley raised just under $2,000 last year and has cleared that amount this year. (Her fundraising page is here) And she also senses an uptick in her preparedness for the Falmouth run this time around.
Erika O’Malley prepares for the Falmouth Road Race.
“I feel much more prepared,” she said. “Last year, I didn’t know the whole seven miles would be lined with people — it was so cool, but I didn’t expect that.”
While most of her training last year consisted of runs up to 3 miles, she has bumped up that distance threshold a couple of miles per run. She runs in the Worcester Firefighters 6K, which also enthusiastically contributes proceeds to NEADS World Class Service Dogs.
O’Malley also is a regular at Thursday night 3-mile fun runs at Sneakerama. Her best 5K is 25:58, which she self-timed last month, through the streets of Worcester.
Last year, O’Malley finished Falmouth in 1 hour, 9 minutes, in just about ideal weather conditions for Falmouth. “I felt really great, and I really surprised myself, with what I accomplished,” she said.
Next week, O’Malley is ready to improve on that.
“I’m looking at the weather already, and it looks like we’ll have a good day.”
Originally published on August 8, 2025, Worcester Telegram & Gazette
May 22, 2025
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — While May is a big month for high school and college graduations, there was a ceremony of a different type in Bridgewater on Thursday.
Two Labrador retrievers, Bentley and Newman, were among seven dogs in all graduating from the State Fire Marshal’s K9 Training Program.
Bentley and Newman were provided by NEADS World Class Service Dogs to the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services to help investigators determine the cause of suspicious fires.
Both dogs completed a 13-week training program.
They were initially trained as Service Dogs to help people who are deaf or have hearing loss, but during their training they demonstrated traits better served to work in law enforcement and public safety.
Kara Milotte is the Manager of NEADS Client Services.
She said the dogs ended up in the right place. “What we’re finding is the dogs with a little more energy, with a little higher drive, have been a wonderful fit for these state police units.”
Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Gregory Spahl said the dogs are trained to enter a fire scene and use their abilities to identify the exact source of a fire. “We could not do our jobs completely without these canines,” he said.
Spahl said that Labrador retrievers once they are paired up with their law enforcement partners can make great fire detection dogs. “They have great noses. And they are very friendly,” he said.
Also graduating in the ceremony Thursday were five other dogs joining law enforcement agencies throughout the state.
WBZ NewsRadio’s Emma Friedman (@EmmaFriedmanWBZ) reports. Photo: Emma Friedman/WBZ NewsRadio
Originally published on WBZ News Radio and CBS News Boston on 5/22/25
Apr 8, 2025
State House News Service – Chris Lisinski/SHNS
Rep. Kimberly Ferguson was watching college basketball at a local watering hole Saturday when she noticed something odd: a small dog sitting on a person’s lap, acting somewhat aggressively toward passersby, while wearing a red vest ostensibly identifying it as a service animal.
“A mother walked up with her young child, and the child was at face level with this dog and asked if she could pet the dog. I was holding my breath, and the person, very wisely said, ‘No, please don’t,’ and picked up the dog and showed her the bow and the dog’s hair, and fluffed the dog and did all this other stuff,” Ferguson told her colleagues Tuesday. “It was just very inappropriate. And the poor dog, I could tell, was very stressed.”
The Holden Republican offered her anecdote as a “timely example” of the need for more concrete policies governing service animals. She pitched the Judiciary Committee on legislation (H 1686 / S 1254) that would create a commission tasked with exploring new reforms on the topic.
That panel would face an April 1, 2026 deadline for a report that would examine “whether to introduce legislation prohibiting and civilly penalizing service animal fraud” and “the feasibility of certifying, registering or licensing service animals,” according to a House summary.
The House unanimously approved a similar bill last term, but it never advanced beyond the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
Kara Milotte, a social worker and manager of client services at NEADS World Class Service Dogs, told lawmakers that Massachusetts currently has “no consequences for people who choose to bring fake service dogs into public spaces.” Milotte testified with a service dog named Bobby at her feet, and another named Velma a few feet away.
At least 27 other states have moved to examine stricter regulations on service animals, according to Ferguson.
Originally published on State House News Service 0n 4/8/25