Who she is
Kathy Hecht of Searsport, Maine, is the president of Salute of Ser vice, a nonprofit organization that helps veterans train their own service dogs. “Veterans need service dogs for PTSD, seizure disorder, hearing loss, mobility or other disabilities,” Kathy says. “It can take years—and cost $20,000 or more—to get an agency-trained dog. With Salute of Service, veterans use their own dogs and the training classes are free.”
What she does
A 17-acre farm allows room for Kathy’s 12 dogs—big dogs—to run. She’s got Great Danes, mastiffs, wolfhounds, Bernese mountain dogs and others. But her property is also the perfect place to train service dogs. The veterans use their pets, “as long as the dog doesn’t have food aggression, dog aggression or people aggression,” Kathy says. If they…