Joint community outreach project benefits Phoenix-area foreclosure pets

Ameritas Group, a division of Nebraska-based Ameritas Life Insurance Corp., has partnered with Bright Now! Dental offices to help homeless pets in Phoenix, Ariz., find new homes through the Frames for Friends project. This community outreach project was developed by the Scottsdale-based Lost Our Home Pet Foundation (LOHPF), a non-profit organization founded by real estate professionals to help dogs and cats left behind during home foreclosures.

Through Frames for Friends, rescued pets ready for adoption are featured on 15-inch digital photo frames in various dental, medical and veterinary offices. This way, patients get a chance to see the rescued dogs and cats displayed in a full-color digital slide presentation. As a result, many pets have found new homes.

But Frames for Friends certainly wouldn't work without the donation of digital photo frames. Ameritas Group, a proud sponsor of this joint outreach project, donated eight 15-inch digital photo frames to eight Phoenix-area Bright Now! Dental offices -- the first health care offices in the nation to display these frames.

Amie McGraham, regional vice president of provider networks for Ameritas Group in Phoenix, was instrumental in making the Frames for Friends project a reality. A lifelong animal advocate, she is an active Lost Our Home and Best Friends Animal Society network volunteer. “When I first heard about the Lost Our Home organization last year, I was overwhelmed at the amount of pets being left behind in foreclosed homes,” McGraham says. “Working with founder Jodi Polanski to help adopt these pets has been a rewarding experience.” McGraham first featured Lost Our Home in a story on the Arizona community in 2008, and the organization was recently highlighted on the Best Friends Network Home page.

In addition to teaming up on the Frames for Friends project, Bright Now! Dental and Ameritas Group have enjoyed a professional working relationship for more than five years. Bright Now! Dental director of market operations for Arizona, Suzann Harms, has a vested interest in animal welfare as the proud owner of Scoop, one of 89 dogs rescued from a Missouri puppy mill last fall by various Phoenix-area animal rescue organizations. This project will be featured in Bright Now! Dental's employee newsletter, along with a contest to generate adoption referrals for the Lost Our Home animals.