DONE!

As of late this afternoon, we are officially DONE with our 4 Paws Fundraising goal.

Due to a flurry of other people finishing their fundraising just ahead of us, the August and September training classes filled up very quickly. There are no tracking-based classes in October or November (they do mobility dogs, seizure dogs, etc. in some other months), we learned that we are the first members of the December 2009 training class. If for some reason, somebody in one of the earlier classes can't make it or has to reschedule, we could be bumped up to the September class.

To all of you out there who made this happen, we're still not tired of saying, "thank you!"

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And down the stretch they come!

So officially, we've crossed the $9,000 mark. But I have it on good authority that my employer's generous donation should be arriving any day, and should be enough actually put us over the top.

Yes, that's right. Any day now, our fundraising goal will be complete. It's hard to believe. We are in awe of all of you out there. We'll post an update when it's official.

With that in mind, we're shifting gears for a bit here.

If you were planning to donate but didn't get to it yet, we have a couple of suggestions:

1. You can donate for our upcoming expenses. When the time comes for us to go to training, we'll have to stay in a hotel near Xenia, Ohio for 10 days. We'll also need to acquire some gear, like a large dog crate. We're estimating that all told, our expenses will be about $2000. To do this, you can use the new "Donate" button on the right side of the page. These donations would not be tax deductible.

- or -

2. You can help another family in our area. Ryan's family is just starting their fundraising. You can learn more about Ryan's service dog needs here: http://adogfriendforryan.blogspot.com/2008/11/dog-friend-for-ryan.html

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Some dog bone photos

Here are a couple pictures of the (literally) thousands of paper bones sold at Amelia's school...

Just to give you a sense of scale, you can see a life-sized Amelia cutout partway down the wall.

These pictures don't even include the big dog house, which was larger than the dog pictured above.

They gave us these big posters to bring home. I've been trying to hang them on the walls of our play room, but it's hard to even fit them. The top of the dog's head touches the ceiling, and his feet still drag on the floor.

My favorite part is seeing all the different names. The careful but crooked lines of a kindergartener, the stylized signatures of older kids, the doodles, the nicknames... Some of the bones say "5 bones" or "10 bones" on them, which I'm sure the people cutting them out were thankful for. I heard bones were selling so fast at one point that some of the teachers were getting blisters from cutting them out.

We also need to say Thank You to the Circleville Herald for the lovely story they put on the front page on December 3rd (or check in your "Shoppers Guide" bag if you don't get the paper). If you're a subscriber, you can see the article here.

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Craft Bazaar report

We saw some old friends and met some new friends. We talked to a lot of wonderful and generous people and raised a good bit money for 4 Paws. We gave away a lot of free dog treats and people treats as a "Thank You" to our school and our community. We got to say "thanks" in person to some of the people who have helped us so much already. We met Joy the wonder-dog, Alexa the wonder-kid, Ciarra the wonder-sister, and Kristen the wonder-mom. We learned that some wheelchairs have lights on the wheels. We had a couple unplanned wardrobe changes, some broken glasses, a couple naps, and some snacks. We bought some goodies, helped at least one other good cause (the Cure Tays-Sachs Foundation), and our own cause was helped by the awesome Girl Scouts at the table next to us. Amelia and Edson got to play in a big inflatable bouncy castle. Owen got to wow people with his cuteness. Mom and Dad got worn out. And everbody had a good time.



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Craft Fair SATURDAY

We'll be at the Craft Bazaar at Westfall Elementary from 9am to 3pm on Saturday, December 6th. We'll have dog treats, people treats, flyers, and an appearance by the amazing Joy - the mobility assitance dog trained by 4 Paws for Alexa, a ten-year-old girl with Spina Bifida.

Hope to see you there!

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Another Thank You

Our friend Casey of Fields of View Photography is donating all proceeds from the sale of the two photos below to 4 Paws for Ability on behalf of Amelia. You can purchase them here if you're interested. She's also inspired a fundraiser in the online group Big Damn Crafters.





THANK YOU!

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Our daughter the celebrity

Kids rule. (And so do their parents.)

Last week we went over to the YMCA to collect some money being donated for Amelia. It was so touching to see a couple dozen kids come out together, with their banner and their smiles, to give us the money they themselves had collected. So far. They decided to keep their fundraiser going until we reach our goal.

The kids were apparently eager to meet Amelia, so after some group photos, they surrounded her like she was Miley Cyrus or something. She just smiled and turned around to look at all of them, not sure what to make of it. We were so appreciative of the work these kids had done, and they seemed really proud to have helped. And well they should be.

Then tonight I went over to the school with Amelia and Edson for parent-teacher conferences while Lori stayed home with sick baby Owen.

As mentioned previously, Westfall Elementary also set up a fundraiser for Amelia. Edson came home from kindergarten the Friday before last and said "Amelia was on TV at school today." Apparently they had her appear on their closed-circuit morning school "news broadcast," explaining to the kids about the fundraiser. They also sent home a flyer with all the students, telling them to save their quarters. They made a huge drawing of a dog, and for 50 cents, kids could buy paper dog bones and stick them on the dog picture.

Tonight I got to see the famous dog picture. It's about four feet high and six feet long. And completely covered in bones. They are overlapping and spilling out around the edges. They told me it took just two days to fill. So they added a huge dog house, probably six feet by seven feet. Also completely covered. And a huge dog dish. And a huge ball. Covered. They even traced Amelia herself and made a big cutout of her, with a flowered shirt and a photocopied head, holding some bones in her hand. So adorable. They told me they won't cover her up though. :-)

And that's not all. Everybody I ran into had something more to share. Amelia's preschool teacher showed me a note from one of the parents of a classmate. This little preschooler had donated his entire allowance to help Amelia. Another teacher told me they were thinking of expanding the fundraiser to the middle school. Someone else told me the total was over $1400 in just one week. Another teacher commented that some students were asking really great questions and having really good discussions about things like disabilities and service dogs as a result.

The preschool teacher in the room across the hall from Amelia's was telling me that kids are starting to recognize her around the school, saying "hi" and interacting with her. As if to confirm her comments, just after that, a little girl, probably four, came up to her and said, "Hi Amelia! Do you want to play with me?" We heard several parents walking past saying, "Is that Amelia" or kids saying, "There she is!" And greetings everywhere we turned. I remember when I was in elementary school, the special needs kids were often shunned, mocked, teased, or even feared. It was amazing to see such a contrast.

I don't know if any YMCA participants or Westfall Elementary students or parents or teachers are reading this, but if you are, THANK YOU! I couldn't even properly express my gratitude to all these people tonight for fear of getting choked up. After we left, I couldn't wait the ten minutes it would take to drive home, so I called Lori from the parking lot. Only it didn't make for a very coherent story, because I could barely get the words out.

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Family Secrets

...as in: We want yours.

........as in: Your favorite recipes.

We are hoping to put together a cookbook as a fundraiser. We thought this would be a good way to let people contribute in a way that didn't involve those ever-more-precious dollars and cents. Hopefully the cookbook itself would have lasting value too.

So if you've got something good you want to share (or even something mediocre if it comes with a good story attached) leave us a comment, drop us an email, send us a telepathic message, or whatever other method of communication you favor.

It can be traditional, modern, ethnic, offbeat, vegetarian, breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, midnight snack, something for company, something for holidays, something for just you, your grandma's secret, your own invention, something you stole, something blue, a canning recipe, dog treats, easy, hard, fast, slow, long, short, extremely healthy, or a heart attack drizzled with cheese sauce. Just no seafood. ;-)

Thanks!

Another new development

Amelia's school just let us know that they will be doing a week-long fundraiser for her next week. The coordinator told me how excited they are to help, but also told us how they could use it as an opportunity to teach the kids how animals can help people. To me, that makes it even cooler.

We'll let you know more details later. The help and support are so gratifying.

Thank you Westfall Elementary!

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Mark your calendar

December 6th, from 9am to 3pm, we will be at the Westfall Elementary School in Williamsport, Ohio, for their craft bazaar. Organizers have generously provided us with a table. (Thanks Nicole, Julie, and Roberta!)

We hope to have at least two dogs trained by 4 Paws on hand, and hopefully we can have some baked goods, maybe a raffle of some sort... We've still got a couple of months to work out the specifics.

I know many of you reading this are nowhere near us, but if you are in the neighborhood, stop by, say "hello", and shake a few paws...

[... and if you want to bake some brownies and bring them by, well, I'm sure not gonna stop ya! ]

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Breaking News!

Our local YMCA has been great to Amelia. They let her take swimming lessons with her brother. They even gave her her own dedicated swim instructor, someone who had taught her own autistic son to swim.

Then this past summer, they bent their minimum age requirement for Camp Can-Do to let Amelia participate. She had a blast.

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And now this:

The YMCA is taking on Amelia's cause and making her a part of their Make a Difference Day activities.

How cool is that?