Colleen Britton

VacaValley Tea Party Patriots Past President-CFRW Election Integrity Project-

Solano RWF- Central Solano Citizen/Taxpayer Group

Originally from the Midwest, Colleen grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. She graduated from San Jose State University and completed graduate work at University of CA Davis and Santa Cruz. Married to a career Air Force pilot their family traveled extensively. When their two children were in high school, Colleen embarked on a 25 year teaching career in Vacaville where she taught junior high and high school students.

For eleven years she owned and operated Heritage Photography, an at home business where she combined her passion for art and photography into a wonderful adventure.
She also was a licensed loan officer and certified mortgage planner for four years.

Colleen is a past president of the Capitol Art Society in Austin Texas, Solano County Arts Council, and founder and current president of the Vaca Valley Tea Party, in Vacaville, CA.

In spring of 2011 while in Houston, Texas at a True the Vote Conference, Colleen met Linda Paine, the co-founder of the Election Integrity Project as she was in the process of starting EIP here in CA. The following summer they crossed paths again as Colleen sought to put together an EIP team in Solano County. With the experience and lessons learned in the 2012 elections, we are even more determined to make a positive difference in the 2014 and 2016 elections. This past November Colleen volunteered to serve as an EIP regional manager for the Bay Area Counties--the goal: to establish EIP teams in ALL of California's 58 counties. It will be a monumental task, but well worth the effort for the difference we can make. In November Colleen made EIP presentations to the Central Solano Taxpayers Association in Suisun and at the Republican Women Federated in Georgetown, CA. So far in 2014 additional EIP presentations have been scheduled in Yolo, Solano, Napa, and Santa Clara counties, and the word has gone out to any and everyone who believes that the integrity of our elections rests on *every legally cast vote accurately counted* and is willing to work toward that end. Time and commitment are of the essence.

The Laura Douglas, Client Services Manager, and her service dog are visiting our group on 4/2/2018 and come from the organization's office located in Rohnert Park, CA.

Founded and led by the famous canine researcher and inventor of the service dog concept, Dr. Bonnie Bergin, Bergin University is the first and only university in the world that focuses on training dogs and learning about dogs. Through its unique mission to advance human-canine studies, it produces the world's best dog trainers and helps us breed the highest quality service dogs in the world. Although Paws for Purple Hearts is now separate from Bergin University, it's a cause that is near and dear to Dr. Bergin. Today, she still actively engaged with Paws for Purple Hearts as board member.

Dr. Bonita (Bonnie) Bergin invented the concept of the Service Dog to assist people with mobility limitations in 1975. At that time, she founded Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), the first nonprofit to train and place Service Dogs.

After leaving CCI In 1991, Dr. Bergin founded the Assistance Dog Institute, which was formally designated a university in early 2004. Today, growing Bergin University of Canine Studies is the only university dedicated to teaching service dog trainers in the world.

The distinguished Dr. Bergin has been honored with numerous awards including the prestigious Presidential Points of Light Award; Oprah Winfrey's "Use Your Life Award"; "What Matters" HBO TV; Council on Disability Rights Individual Achievement Award; and Alumni of the Year Sonoma State University

"The whole point of Paws for Purple Hearts is that it builds on the time-honored tradition of soldiers giving a hand to other soldiers, just like we did on the battlefield together." - Steve Moore, Sergeant, U.S. Army (Ret.)

Our Long History
PPH PROGRAMS MOVE FROM PILOT TO PERMANENT
"Paws for Purple Hearts" is the first program of its kind to offer Canine-Assisted Warrior TherapyTM, also known as Canine Assisted Therapeutic Intervention, to Veterans and active-duty military personnel.

60 Dogs We've Deployed
5267 Therapy Session Participation (session slots filled) *Many Warriors attend multiple sessions*
3527 Lives we've directly improved