Max celebrates his fosters during Volunteer Appreciation Week

ATLANTA - A dedicated team of FOX 5 employees is helping teach Max to become a service dog for a veteran in need, and it's a special week for our Operation Max team. 

As many of you know, Max comes from a non-profit organization called Canine Assistants in Milton, Georgia. They pair 75-100 dogs annually with people who have difficulty with mobility, epilepsy, Type 1 diabetes as well as dogs in pediatric hospitals and rehab centers.  

This week, Canine Assistants is celebrating "Volunteer Appreciation Week" as a way to say thanks to all of the organization's volunteers. That includes Max's team of fosters: Katie Muse, Susan Kicak, and Donna Bell! Katie works as a digital producer at FOX 5, Susan is a producer for Good Day Atlanta, and Donna works as an account executive for our sales department. 

Max has formed incredible bonds with each of his three fosters, and will soon form an even stronger bond with his recipient. 

Canine Assistants has been sharing thoughtful posts on social media all week long, thanking its volunteers for their love and hard work. 

"We cannot express how thankful we are for their hard work every day of the year, and we simply could not fulfill our mission without each and every one of them," C.A. said on its Facebook page. 

Max first met his FOX 5 foster family in December 2016, when he was about 6-weeks-old. It was love at first sight! On January 17, when he was 12-weeks-old, Max officially began his “job” at FOX 5 News. Every day since then, Max has been working hard with his FOX 5 foster team on age-appropriate skills. They all love him to pieces! 

Max's fosters went through hours-worth of training to have the skills necessary to properly teach him to become a service dog and they continue to work closely with his Canine Assistants instructor, Kristen Hill.

VOLUNTEER: If you're interested in becoming a Canine Assistants volunteer, click here.

DON'T MISS: Max the future service dog visits Washington, DC