ICAN's next graduation is around the corner!

On December 11th, we will be graduating seven service dogs and placing them with an individual living with a disability. For those of you who have never attended one of our graduations, we hope you and your friends or co-workers will be able to join us. It is an inspiring, empowering and uplifting evening in which you will personally experience how our inmate handlers and dogs are bringing hope to other people's lives. 

ADVANCE REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. If you and a friend would like to attend, please contact Dino at [email protected] no later than December 1st. 

IMPORTANT: Please include your name as it appears on your driver's license, your date of birth, address and email for each person registering. A confirmation with important details on entering a correctional facility will be emailed to you on Monday, December 8^th. All guests must be 18 years or older to attend. If you have any questions, please contact Dino at 317-672-3864. 

We hope you will be able to join us!

For two weeks, ICAN provides lunch for our handlers and clients at team training in which meals are prepared by the Indiana Women's Prison's Culinary Class. To help reduce costs, we welcome contributions, in particular, gift cards from Kroger, Costco or GFS, to help us prepare healthy meals for those involved with team training. A cash contribution is also welcomed and that may be done online at Support Team Training or by mailing a check payable to ICAN at 5610 Crawfordsville Road, Suite 2101, Indianapolis, IN 46224. Please be sure to reference online or on your check ''ICAN Team Training".  If you are able to donate any of the items below, please contact Joan at 317-672-3860 no later than November 21^st on any items you can provide. Please note, no glass containers are permitted at IWP. Thank you! 

• Gift Cards from Kroger, Costco or GFS.
• Bottled water 
• Gatorade
• Sodas (cans only)
• Plastic utensils
• Large & medium paper plates 
• Plastic bowls
• Plastic or paper cups (8 -12 oz)
• Napkins
• Aluminum foil (commercial roll)
• Saran Wrap  (commercial roll)
• Paper towels
• Commercial (Restaurant) Terry Cloth Dish Drying Towels (white only)*
• Kitchen hair nets
• Food service gloves
• Plastic table covers or plastic roll for 8' tables (red, navy blue, green)
• Commercial (Restaurant) Service Aprons (Royal Blue or Black only)*
• Dish detergent
• Commercial Oven Mitts*

*Can be purchased at GFS or Sam's Club 

For our handlers, it's a time to celebrate the hard work they have done in preparing a dog to graduate. One way they do this is creating a special theme in which to decorate the gym (where graduation is held) making it quite magical for our guests. At June's graduation they had a musical theme to tie into our ''Musical Litter'' that graduated. The entire room was arranged with musical notes, hand-made instruments and even an actual size piano made out of cardboard! Over the years, we have seen fireplaces made from boxes, chimneys built from paper, gingerbread houses made from fabric, a canopy of hand-made flowers strung with lights, fairy tale characters and more. It's truly a labor of love that is embraced by all who attend. 

The handlers are stepping it up a notch this year with a fun Holiday theme and provided us a ''wish list'' of materials needed to turn the gym into a Winter Wonderland. Needing to clear out the attic or a closet? Do you have a surplus of holiday lights, bows, wrapping paper you won't use this year? If you would like to donate any of the following items, please contact Dino at [email protected] or call her at 317-672-3860 as early as possible. Wags & Tails for anything you can contribute!

• Gift Cards to Michael's, Menards or Lowes
• House Paint (water based only) - One Gallon each of white, black, red, blue, yellow and brown paint
• 1 Gallon of Elmer's Glue
• Tissue paper - metallic silver, red, blue, green, black, white, and light blue
• Wrapping paper - metallic if possible - red, green, silver , blue
• Glow Sticks - Approx.100 feet 
• Poster board (white)
• Large roll of white paper
• Assorted Holiday lights
• 1 jumbo roll of plastic silver or blue table cloth
• Assorted bows and ribbons (wide ribbon to make bows)
• Silver Garland, 50 ft.
• Stockings of all sizes
• Sarah wrap *(commercial roll)
• Ribbon streamer of all colors

Recently, ICAN held their annual Wine & Wags fundraiser on October 9^th. The evening was not only inspirational, but it was filled with puppy love and lots of wagging tails...17 of them!  More than 400 guests attended the program and by the end of the evening all 17 pups received a new name from their new sponsor!

We extend a HUGE thanks to Cummins, The National Bank of Indianapolis, and Southern Wine & Spirits of Indiana for their generous support in making this year's Wine & Wags possible. A special thanks to our evening host, Terri Stacy, and keynote speakers, Andrew Cole, Lisa Ambers, Lisa Condes, Yeahsen John, Olivia Goldfarb and Beth Perdue Outland, for their powerful message. We are extremely grateful to those who attended the evening program, sponsored a pup, made a contribution, and/or hosted a table. And last, we could not have done it without our incredible volunteers! This year's Wine & Wags was the best ever - THANK YOU!

The following is the link to the video shown that evening on how ICAN is bringing hope to others. https://vimeo.com/108647551