Trevor Comeau doesn’t remember his life-changing accident.
In May 2010, when vacationing in Jamaica, Comeau swam off the boat and into a cave. Inside, he attempted to jump off a cliff but slipped and fell. He floated out of the cave.
“I woke up in Florida,” he says.
Chris Kittredge
Since then, Comeau has adjusted to his new normal as someone with quadriplegia, but he doesn’t have to do it alone. His new life led him to connect with Dray II, an assistance dog from Canine Companions for Independence.
“His companionship and having him with me has made a world of difference,” Comeau says.
The first year following his accident was the slowest for Comeau, with winter being horrible because he had to stay inside all the time. He continued to improve enough to use a manual wheelchair. During his recovery journey, Comeau came across several clients who had CCI assistance dogs.
“I really wanted one,” he says.
Dray was the first dog Comeau worked with during his training at CCI. He knew instantly it was the dog he wanted to be matched with after issuing his first command for Dray to lay his head on his lap.
“I didn’t need to work with any other dogs,” he says. “I was good.”
Comeau, who completed his training with Dray in 2016 at the nonprofit organization’s North Central Training Center facility in Delaware, Ohio, became the center’s first graduate to visit its new campus in New Albany.
“It was everything I thought it would be and so much more,” Comeau says. “It exceeded all of my expectations.”
Scheduled to open next month, the new 54,000-square-foot facility is six times larger than its Delaware location, which CCI North Central has called home for 30 years. The new location will offer lodging accommodations with up to 16 rooms.
“The entire mission can play out on campus,” says Megan Koester, the executive director of the North Central Training Center.
The regional training center, which services or covers 14 states from North Dakota to Pennsylvania, typically places 55 to 65 dogs per year. Applicants come out for two weeks to potentially match and train with an assistance dog. In previous years, they’ve had to stay in hotels outside of class time.
“It’s a big commitment to choose to get a dog and choose to take two weeks out of their lives to do the training,” Koester says. “It will be very nice that they are all there and won’t have to deal with that extra time (of commuting).”
Comeau was living and working in New Albany when he completed his training with Dray, and therefore was able to commute to and from his own apartment while his fellow classmates went to different hotels. He’s excited about the dorm concept because it will allow people in similar situations to share their experiences with each other.
“I think this new campus is going to really allow the NC region’s staff to do their job better than they already do,” he says. “I’ve been so lucky and so happy to be part of this family and I said it from the beginning.”
Based in Santa Rosa, California, CCI has six regional training centers throughout the country. It breeds its own dogs in California, but has them raised in homes with families, followed by two years of training to learn scores of commands to help people with more than 60 different disabilities.
However, Koester says they match dogs with individuals based on their needs rather than what disabilities they have, because individuals with the same disability could have different experiences.
The training center continues to stay in contact with its 500 graduates to answer questions about their assistance dog, and they visit their regional training centers every one to two years, Koester says.
Before the pandemic, CCI North Central had quarterly training sessions for 14 to 16 individuals. They had a limited number of training sessions for smaller groups of people, including one-on-one training, but Koester says she expects training sessions to be more frequent now, and in in smaller groups.
Additionally, Koester expects CCI to become more involved with the New Albany community. With the campus about a mile away from Market Square, clients will have access to grocery stores, pharmacies and leisure activities.
“It feels like we’re moving into the neighborhood we’re meant to be in,” she says.
Koester adds the new campus could become a hub for CCI to host the parent organization’s own events and conferences.
Comeau now lives in New York to be closer to family and friends, but enjoyed his time in New Albany for its therapy and gym options and COTA’s transit services for wheelchair riders, something he now lacks at his current residence. He’s also had positive interactions with the different CCI training centers that he’s visited with Dray.
While Comeau may not remember his fateful accident, he has been able to make incredible new memories with Dray during his visits to elementary schools to read books about service dogs to children. Before the pandemic, they visited about four schools a year.
“I hope Dray lives to be 30 and works with me forever,” Comeau says, “but since most dogs don’t, I imagine I’ll be getting a new service dog and hoping to go to the Ohio campus, even if I’m living in a different region at the time.”
Brandon Klein is the editor. Feedback welcome at bklein@cityscenemediagroup.com.
