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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — For so many of us, dogs are members of our families. Giving—and receiving—that unconditional love. To Rebecca Golian and her organization, they are heroes and lifesavers.
Rebecca is the Executive Director of Project 2 Heal, an organization dedicated to transforming people’s lives with service and therapy dogs.
Rebecca describes the uniqueness of the organization. “We are actually the only non-profit organization in the U.S. that breeds and raises Labrador Retrievers and donates them to service dog organizations across the country.”
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The Remarkable Women nominee discovered a passion for working with animals at a young age, riding horses professionally for years before discovering dog training in college. She fell in love with it. After graduation, she built an extensive resume of training and placing service and guide dogs, as well as starting her own dog training company. Rebecca started one of those companies in Charlotte in 2019. She linked up with Project 2 Heal a year later and, in 2024, took over as Executive Director.
“It’s very challenging to find good quality dogs for service work,” Rebecca explains. “Oftentimes, service dog schools will try to use local pet breeders or go to a rescue shelter to find a dog, but unfortunately, the success rate is quite low, which increases the waiting period that someone has to wait to receive a dog.”
With Project 2 Heal, the training starts at birth, with volunteers like Manoella Martin. Manoella manages the Breeding and Puppy Program. She explains, “We want to expose them to different surfaces, different environments, different people, sounds… so when they are thrown out into the world, that sound that they heard, if they’re startled or scared, they overcome that so they can become confident puppies.”
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The impact of service dogs on mental and physical health and recovery is high. So is the demand.
Rebecca explains, “As more research has come out—what service dogs do for people—we’ve seen an increase in applicants. Schools have been seeing increases, longer waiting periods. I would say the average waiting period for a non-profit in the U.S. for someone is 3-4 years.”
Once training is complete, the dogs raised by Project 2 Heal can go to any service organization in the country. Rebecca hopes to keep them a little closer to home in the future.
“Our goal is to place our fully trained service dogs in our local community here. The Charlotte metro does not have a non-profit service organization, so anyone here in need of a service dog is gonna have to go out elsewhere.”
No matter where they go, Rebecca says that saying goodbye to a trainee is always a challenge.
“But what is most important is knowing where that dog is gonna go… and knowing that your hard work, even as a puppy raiser, even as a trainer, that that dog is gonna go change someone’s life. As hard as it is to say goodbye to the dogs that we spend months or even years with, deep down in your heart, it’s super fulfilling, and I wouldn’t want to do anything else with my life.”
Project 2 Heal hosts several events to support their mission throughout the year. “Pints for Pups” happens in May, followed by the “Putts for Pups” golf tournament in October. For more information, go to their website at project2heal.org.
