BANGOR – A Bangor resident will be the first New Englander this far north to receive a service dog from Canine Assistants, a nonprofit organization located in Atlanta.

Harold Spaulding, 77, who sold materials for “building trades mostly” for 60 years, has dealt with Parkinson’s disease for about eight years and is now confined to a wheelchair. He hopes the service dog he is scheduled to receive in January will be his “arms and legs.”

Earlier this month at the 653 Broadway Hannaford store, Spaulding was introduced to a representative service dog named Tom, a golden retriever, and to Canine Assistants recipient services coordinator Judy Moore-Padgett.

Joining Spaulding were family members, a host of media, and representatives from Hannaford and Kraft Foods Milk-Bone – sponsors of this year’s Canine Assistants program. The sponsorship includes dog purchase, dog and recipient training, and lifelong veterinary services, valued at more than $10,000. This is Hannaford’s fifth year participating with Milk-Bone, said store manager Gary Campbell.

Moore-Padgett, who has worked for Canine Assistants since 1999, said that the first few years since the program began in 1991 saw one to 10 dogs placed yearly. And now?

“We are up to between 60 and 70 dogs per year,” she said.

The organization is nationwide and serves people with disabilities such as multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy and Parkinson’s disease. Canine Assistants also trains seizure response dogs to get medications and obtain help for a person having a seizure. Service dogs have “all public access” except in a hospital operating room, Moore-Padgett said.

Labrador retrievers, golden retrievers and lab-golden mixes are used in the program because they are the “most socially accepted, and they love people,” Moore-Padgett said.

Canine Assistants is located on an 18-acre farm in Atlanta, where dogs are raised “right out of the womb,” Moore-Padgett said. Dogs receive general training such as turning off lights and shutting doors.

Recipients then attend a training camp in Atlanta for two weeks to meet their dogs, and to allow staff to provide the dogs with training specific to the new owners’ needs. Dogs can receive training periodically as owners’ needs change.

Spaulding is planning to attend the two-week training camp in January.

To obtain information or an application for Canine Assistants, or to make a donation, visit www.canineassistants.org.