Contact:
Beth Bragg Henon
404.538.8590
bhenon@lowcountrycc.org
lowcountrycc.org
Serving Our Neighbors With Service Animals Well
By Pastor Jeff Cranston
July 1, 2019

One of the greatest honors we have as a community church in Bluffton is serving
not only area residents but welcoming hundreds of visitors each year. Welcoming
newcomers has always been an essential part of LowCountry Community
Church's mission and calling since our founding in 1994. To that end, we work
hard to train a dedicated team of volunteers to help visitors feel at home, find
their way, and rush to assist those with special needs. We have great respect for
our friends, neighbors, and visitors who overcome physical challenges to attend
church, and it is our privilege to worship with and assist them in every way
possible. Our services to those with special needs include, but are not limited to,
early seating for those who need specific assistance, room to accommodate
mobility issues, curb service and walking assistance for those to whom it is
helpful.
For 24 years, we were delighted to be able to safely serve our respected attendees
with service animals. However, the American Disabilities Act Title III requires
any facility allowing service animals to also allow virtually any animal, at all
times, with minimal restrictions on areas of access. This law also disallows
requiring documentation for a service animal or asking the animal owner to sit in
a designated area. While churches and private clubs are exempt from this law, it
is our greatest desire to not only accommodate but lovingly welcome and serve
anyone and everyone. However, allowing an unlimited number of potentially
uncertified animals, with minimal venue restrictions, as the existing law requires,
would be a safety risk to the approximately 2,500 people who attend events in
our facility each week, including those with severe allergies and emotional
reactions to animals. To avoid restricting access to anyone, we have sought legal
counsel to find ways we could safely accommodate service animals while
protecting the health of the thousands of people who utilize our venue weekly.
Finding no legal way to continue allowing service animals, while restricting
untrained, unsafe animals, we reluctantly, but responsibly instituted a policy in
April 2018 restricting access of all animals. This is the same law banning service
animals from many hospitals. This was a difficult decision made with the safety of
everyone in mind and with multiple avenues for our staff and volunteers to assist
our friends and neighbors in need of specific assistance.
-more801 BUCKWALTER PARKWAY / BLUFFTON, SC 29910 PHONE (843) 836-1101 WEB LOWCOUNTRYCC.ORG

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We had the privilege of meeting a young man as our 11 a.m. church service was
underway on June 30, 2019, who was a first-time visitor and, like a number of
our current congregants, is sight impaired. However, this gentleman was
accompanied by his service animal. After welcoming him, our volunteer
explained to him the current law, the safety issues around allowing access of any
and all animals, and offered to provide human assistance that would enable him
to attend without the use of the service animal. The young man said he would
indeed return the following week without his service animal and he was assured
of the ready assistance of our volunteer team. Therefore, we were surprised to
learn via social media of his subsequent comments, and we share his concern
over the inadequacies of the ADA Title III. We hope the law can be altered to
allow legitimate use of service animals in private venues such as our church and
would like to be a part of the solution for others navigating these challenges. We
have reached out to our neighbor who visited us to discuss further ways in which
we can assist and serve him and would be honored to work with him to enhance
the lives of those with special physical needs.
LowCountry Community Church (LCC), located in Bluffton, South Carolina was
founded in 1994. The church with a weekly attendance of some 2,500 and is
known for reaching out to the community through shoe donations, community
projects and helping community partners like the Boys & Girls Club, Bluffton Self
Help, Samaritan's Purse, and Allendale Prison. LCC was the regional hub for
Samaritan's Purse Disaster when Hurricane Matthew hit Bluffton, SC in 2016.
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801 BUCKWALTER PARKWAY / BLUFFTON, SC 29910 PHONE (843) 836-1101 WEB LOWCOUNTRYCC.ORG