Four black Labrador puppies traveled from their breeder’s home in North Carolina to be united with veterans and their families on Wednesday.

“I am so excited. These puppies are so cute. I’m thankful Valor had volunteers to drive down there and bring them back here,” said Jennifer Hieber, an Air Force veteran who lives in Canadensis.

She and husband, Christian, who is an Army veteran, and their 12-year-old daughter, Cassidy, were invited to VALOR Clinic Foundation in Jonas to take home one or two of the puppies.

The Hiebers have three children, plus dogs and lizards.

The family’s 11-year-old black lab died earlier this year. The family shared photos of her with those gathered on the lawn, as the puppies ran around playfully.

One puppy seemed to choose their family and loved having his picture taken with cellphone cameras. Someone suggested Brute as the name, but they were going to talk it over as a family later in the day and decide.

“The companionship of a dog is a great way to reduce stress and having someone to care for helps keep veterans going,” said Sergeant Major Mark Baylis, VALOR’s founder.

This is part of VALOR’S Veterans Unstoppable PSTD (post-traumatic stress disorder) program.

One puppy went home to White Haven with Army veteran Donald Harrell.

“My wife and I are conferring on a name. We had two golden retriever sisters who recently passed away,” he said.

Baylis got his own dog from the breeder in North Carolina.

“They are a really good breeder,” said Baylis. “We had a batch of four yellow labs about a month ago. They went to local veterans.”

Susan Bush volunteered to drive to Kittrell, North Carolina, for the yellow labs.

“I called my friend Mary Vanicky to see if she would ride along. We called it Mary and Susan’s great adventure,” said Bush.

Bush’s husband is a disabled retired veteran. They received one of the yellow labs, who is now about five months old.

“We had so much fun the first time,” said Bush. “Mark asked if we wanted to go again. I called Mary and she said yes!”

They left at 6 a.m. Tuesday and got home about midnight. The women and puppies got some sleep. In the morning, Bush gave each puppy a bath before they left to meet the veterans.

“The puppies were donated by the breeder this time. The breeder had a surprise litter of puppies,” Baylis said.

There are three males and one female in this litter. They were born July 23.

“I called the girl DQ – for Drama Queen – during the drive home. She is the grunt. She is mouthy. The boys just laid there and took it all in stride,” said Bush.

“It’s wonderful that VALOR offers puppies to veterans,” said Lori Rowlands.

When her friend John David, a Vietnam combat veteran, died he asked that donations be given to VALOR Clinic Foundation. She had not heard of the organization until then.

“Six of us donated money. I brought the check to one of their volunteer meetings,” she said.

Soon after, she began volunteering with the organization. Later, she was hired as a house manager. VALOR house currently provides transitional housing to 14 veterans.

In addition to Veterans Unstoppable, there are programs that involve homeless outreach and family food donations.

To keep its program going, VALOR hosts the Annual Patriots Ball. The public and veterans are invited to a night of dancing, music and gourmet food for a good cause on Nov. 11.

Baylis said ticket sales have been slow.

“Our goal is to sell 350 tickets this year and we’ve only sold about a dozen. We hope to create additional programs to assist our country’s heroes and to continue the successful programs we already have,” he said.

The ball is at 6 p.m. at Stroudsmoor Country Inn, 247 Stroudsmoor Road, Stroudsburg. Tickets are $125/person or $950 for a table of eight.

VALOR is also accepting event sponsorships, gift cards, gift certificates, monetary donations and baskets for the event’s silent auction. Donor names will be listed on baskets.