Welcome to my Walk and Play L.A. page for 2021.

The dog therapy program at Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) is funded entirely by donations. For the past four years, our fantastic volunteers and their friends have supported dog therapy through Walk LA to help support the work we do every day to bring comfort, joy and love to patients, families and staff at CHLA.

This past year has been a challenging one due to COVID-19.  While therapy dogs have not been on the CHLA campus since March 2020, we have continued to provide support to patients and staff through virtual visits.  During a virtual visit, patients have a chance to interact with several dogs who are relaxing and playing in their homes and to collect trading cards of the dogs who are visiting them.  

While I'm a huge supporter of all of the dogs in our program, I am participating in Walk and Play L.A. 2021 in memory and honor of my girl Bailey who was an exceptional therapy dog at CHLA from 2005 until 2011. As I think back to her thousands of visits at CHLA, I am still amazed at her intuitive ability to provide support and comfort to patients, families and staff as they dealt with major illnesses.

Thanks for supporting the dog therapy program.