About Us > Our History
Three volunteers founded Sunshine Friends in 1998. At that time a total of 10 volunteers were visiting with the newly formed organization at 4 different facilities in Syracuse. In February of 1999 Sunshine Friends became Sunshine Friends Incorporated and later gained status as a charitable, not-for-profit organization.
2000 was a year of expansion. SFI volunteers were accepted into University Hospital in Syracuse as the sole providers of animal assisted activities in the Pediatric and Psychiatric Departments. SFI also began providing animal assisted therapy to the hospital's Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department. In addition to the hospital programs, SFI gained many new volunteers and enabled the organization to expand services to even more assisted-living facilities in Central New York. In January of 2004, Sunshine Friends, Inc implemented the SFI Pet Therapy Certification, an extensive evaluation and education procedure specific to our therapeutic pet programs.