BUSINESS EDUCATION HEALTH & MEDICINE JOBS MEDIA / Modified jun 25, 2025 10:32 p.m.

The A.R.F.F. Program: How shelter dogs are helping people living with aphasia.

Also on Arizona Spotlight: Sharing memories of "The Twilight Zone" with Joseph Dougherty, author of "Rod Serling at 100".

Rod Serling hero Rod Serling, creator of "The Twilight Zone".
WSKG Telecommunications Council

Arizona Spotlight

June 26, 2025

NPR
(Download MP3)

Featured on the June 26th, 2025 edition of ARIZONA SPOTLIGHT with host Mark McLemore:

  • Aphasia is a communication disorder that can affect people of all ages and backgrounds. June is Aphasia Awareness month, and Mark meets some local individuals who are working together as part of a new program called A.R.F.F., or Aphasia Reading with Furry Friends. They’re regaining their reading skills and their confidence by reading storybooks to some of the dogs at Pima Animal Care Center.

For more information about the ARFF program, you can reach out to Fabi Hirsch Kruse, Speech-Language Pathologist, at aphasiadoc@gmail.com or 520-730-8428.

To make a donation to support the ARFF program, please go to the Friends of PACC donation page here. Where it asks, "What motivated your gift today?", write ARFF or APHASIA. Donations by check are also accepted via the Friends of PACC website.

ARFF AZPM Studio hero (left to right) Clay, Rona, Melissa, and Dr. Fabi Hirsch Kruse in the AZPM Radio Studio.
AZPM / Mark McLemore

PACC Group Photo hero (left to right) Dr. Fabi Hirsch Kruse, Valerie Cwik, Melissa Howitt, Clay Rage, Corinne Matesich, Rona Howard, Yesenia Rodriguez, and Andy Ortiz--all members of the program, Aphasia Reading with Furry Friends (A.R.F.F.), at the Pima Animal Care Center (PACC).
Dr. Fabi Hirsch Kruse

PACC Rona unsized VIEW LARGER Rona reading to Midnight, one of the dogs at Pima Animal Care Center.
Dr. Fabi Hirsch Kruse

PACC Yesenia hero Yesenia reading to dogs Axul, Honey, and Martini at Pima Animal Care Center.
Dr. Fabi Hirsch Kruse

  • and, legendary television writer and Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling was born on Christmas Day in 1924. A century later, his vast body of work is still being studied and understood. Mark gets to talk to Emmy-award winning author Joseph Dougherty about his book “Serling at 100: One Writer’s Acknowledgement”. Instead of being an exhaustive biography, it is a series of reflections on some of Serling’s most moving and memorable ideas.
pioneers_tv_rserling617x347 Rod Serling, television writer and creator of "The Twilight Zone".
PBS
Rod Serling at 100 Book unsized VIEW LARGER "Rod Serling at 100: One Writer's Acknowledgment" by Joseph Dougherty.
Arizona Spotlight
Arizona Spotlight airs every Thursday at 8:30 am and 6:00 pm and every Friday at 8:00 pm on NPR 89.1 FM / 1550 AM. You can subscribe to our podcast on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, or the NPR App. See more from Arizona Spotlight.

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