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CHARLIE PETRIZZO
He survived two near-fatal accidents before his 18th birthday, then left a lucrative banking career to bestow the gift of Labs BY ALLISON FUTTERMAN PHOTOGRAPHS BY RICK HOVIS
CHARLIE PETRIZZO was 16 in the summer of 1979, painting houses for a summer job in Staten Island, New York, where he grew up. The last thing he remembers is a Supertramp song that blared from a transistor radio as he repositioned an aluminum ladder. Then he felt what he describes as the sensation of his eyeballs being sucked out of his face. He had bumped a power line with the ladder. The accident left him with third-degree burns, permanent scarring, and chronic pain—and was his second near-death experience. When he was 5, he was hit by a car and suffered massive brain trauma. Petrizzo eventually made a full recovery. Then came the power line accident. Petrizzo ultimately recovered from his burns, thanks in part to emotional support from the family’s Labrador retriever mix, Toby. He began a successful career as a bank executive and moved to Charlotte from New Jersey in late 2000 for a position at Wachovia. But years later, he fell into a deep depression. He began to question his purpose and whether he’d made a mistake by moving. Petrizzo left his banking job and, with his wife, Sandy, founded Project2Heal, a nonprofit that breeds, nurtures, and socializes Labs to donate to service dog organizations. Based in Waxhaw, where the Petrizzos live, Project2Heal reduces the time and cost for a person in need to get a service dog. It’s hard to keep up with demand; Petrizzo, 58, says he asks his partner organizations how many puppies they think they’ll need, and the answer usually comes back: As many as you DECEMBER 2021 // CHARLOTTE
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