Corcoran Celebrates the Canine; Spring Fling and Second Annual Canine Costume Contest in Central Park

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Stephen Larkin
212.848.0466 
slarkin@corcoran.com

CORCORAN CELEBRATES THE CANINE
Spring Fling and Second Annual Canine Costume Contest in Central Park
Puppies Behind Bars Honored

NEW YORK, NY – April 26, 2005 - The Corcoran Group, the leader in New York City residential real estate, will host its second annual Canine Costume Contest and Spring Fling this Thursday afternoon in Central Park from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.  Puppies Behind Bars, a group that trains prison inmates to raise puppies to be guide dogs for the blind or explosive detection canines, will be honored and celebrity judges will include Gotham Magazine columnist Merritt Meyer, Ella Dish designer Angela Wilcox, and Linda Vetrano, owner of the pet boutique Posh Paws Tall & Small. 

“The Corcoran Group understands how much pets mean to people in New York City” says Janet Lowry, the managing director of Corcoran’s West Side Gallery which is hosting the event. “This is a fun day for our brokers to gather together, welcome in springtime, and salute the wonderful creatures who bring so much joy to our lives. It is a special bonus to be able to”

Prizes for canine costumes will be awarded in three categories including Most Fashionable, Most Creative, and Most Likely to Pass a Board Interview, according to Gallery office manager Shane Adams who also produced the event.  “Our panel of celebrity judges will base their decisions on

This year’s guest of honor is a six-month old yellow Labrador Retriever named Elizabeth who is being trained to become an explosive detection canine at the Wallkill Correctional Facility in upstate New York.  She is part of the hugely successful program run by the non-profit group Puppies Behind Bars, www.puppiesbehindbars.com, which has been training prison inmates to raise puppies to be guide dogs for the blind or explosive detection canines since 1997.

“One very important component of Elizabeth’s training is exposure to people, places and things that she can’t experience in prison,” says Puppies Behind Bars executive director Gloria Gilbert-Stoga. “We are very excited to have Elizabeth attend Corcoran’s Spring Fling where she will get that exposure, and help us enlist more weekend foster caretakers whose help is integral to the training these puppies require.”

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