COCHRANVILLE, PA — Service dogs will do the honors instead of oversized scissors when Canine Partners for Life celebrates a major campus expansion with a canine “ribbon-tugging” ceremony during its annual Fall Festival.
The Sept. 26 celebration will introduce the community to the nonprofit’s new Mollie and Minor Barringer Training Center while raising awareness of the final $800,000 needed for a $3.2 million capital campaign. Canine Partners for Life has already secured more than $2.4 million, or about 75% of its goal.
The new center represents the final phase of a campus expansion undertaken over the past decade by the Cochranville organization, which raises, trains and places service and companion dogs for people with disabilities.
The facility includes the Gerret and Tatiana Copeland Education Hall and Auditorium and is designed to expand the number of training classes, orientations and individual sessions CPL can offer.
A simulated apartment will give service-dog teams a home-like environment for practicing everyday tasks, including transfers to and from a bed and maneuvering with a dog and wheelchair. An accessible shower will provide another setting for developing skills before teams encounter those situations at home.
“This training facility will provide a safe, efficient, and accessible environment that honors the unique needs of the people we serve,” Executive Director Kathleen Leary said.
The center will also allow CPL to keep the full service-dog development process — from puppies’ births through their eventual graduation — on its 45-acre campus, according to Leary.
“Every gift matters — broad community support is needed to cross the finish line,” she said.
A Festival Built Around the Dogs
The ribbon-tugging will be part of CPL’s four-hour Fall Festival, giving visitors several ways to meet the dogs and see how the organization works.
Service-dog demonstrations will take place during the festival, while guests can visit a puppy kissing booth and tour the kennel and new training center. A family fun zone will offer additional activities.
New additions this year include an accessible hayride and enhanced sensory room, along with more than 15 raffle prizes, a pie-baking contest and tasting, and a children’s coloring contest. The first 50 children attending will receive a free plush CPL service dog.
Vendors and multiple food trucks will also be on campus.
Event Details
- What: Canine Partners for Life Fall Festival and Training Center Ribbon-Tugging Ceremony
- When: Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, from noon to 4 p.m.
- Where: Canine Partners for Life, 334 Faggs Manor Road, Cochranville, PA 19330
- Cost/Tickets: Festival admission is free. Cow Bingo tickets are $10 each. No personal pets are permitted for the safety of service dogs.
- More Info: https://k94life.org/events/
Help “Fill the Bus”
The festival also includes a “Fill the Bus” drive supporting CPL. Visitors are asked to bring an item needed by the organization or purchase an item from its wish list during the event.
Festivalgoers can also support CPL’s “Fill the Bus” drive by bringing a needed item or purchasing one from the organization’s wish list. The current wish list is available at https://a.co/0ceIlPjb, and donations can be brought to the Sept. 26 festival.
Visitors can also participate in Cow Bingo for a chance to win $5,000. Tickets cost $10, with each ticket corresponding to a randomly assigned square on the Cow Bingo field. Tickets may be purchased by cash, check or Venmo.
The capital campaign’s lead donors include the late Mollie and Minor Barringer, Tatiana Copeland and the late Gerret van S. Copeland, The Swank Foundation, Arlene Bincsik, Jeff and Stephanie Gorris, West Pharmaceutical Services, Welfare Foundation, The Marian Ware Fund, 25th Century Foundation and The McLean Contributionship. West Pharmaceutical Services is also the festival’s presenting sponsor.
Additional information about the Partnership for Independence Campaign, including photos and construction updates, is available at https://k94life.org/independence-campaign.
Since 1989, Canine Partners for Life has placed more than 850 service and companion dogs nationwide. Its dogs are trained to assist people living with a range of disabilities and medical conditions.
For CPL, the festival will offer families plenty of puppies, demonstrations and fall activities. But the ribbon-tugging will mark something more lasting: a training center designed to give future service-dog teams a place to practice the everyday tasks that can lead to greater independence.
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