Charity gong for Sheffield firm Gripple

26th March 2018

Sheffield engineering firm Gripple have been named 'corporate volunteers of the year' by charity Support Dogs.

The firm won the ward after they designed, made and donated a bespoke dog demo pack for the Brightside-based national assistance dog charity. Support Dogs provides and trains assistance dogs for adults and children with autism, epilepsy and physical disability. The dogs become their clients' personal carers, helping with their everyday lives, from loading and unloading the washing machine and opening doors to fetching the telephone and pulling off shoes and socks. Support Dogs often holds demonstrations of what the dogs can do at fundraising and corporate events. Gripple's dog demo pack, which includes a washing machine, a front door with disability access touch pad, a post box, shopping shelves, and a push button surprize box, has enabled their trainers to show off their dogs' abilities in the very best light. -Gripple's new dog demo pack has made it so much easier for us to showcase our dogs' skills, and we're enormously grateful to them for building the kit, and giving it to us completely free of charge, explained Danny Anderson, fundraising manager at Support Dogs. Lesley Wainright, chair of Gripple's charity committee said: -My company, and many of its staff, have been assisting Support Dogs for some years, recognising how hard it works in helping to increase the independence of people with testing conditions. -We thank Support Dogs for this totally unexpected honour and hope our latest contribution will ease the work of this essential charity.