4 Paws for Ability is a great organization, as 13-year-old Justin and his family have discovered. Justin was born hearing impaired, which means each day he is wearing a hearing aid so he can hear. Justin cannot hear without his hearing aids, but the reality is that he can’t be with the hearing aids every moment of the day. Justin and his family decided that he was in need of a hearing service dog.
That’s when 4 Paws for Ability came into the picture. The group helps families and children that are in need of service dogs to obtain one. Most people are not aware of a reality, however, for people in need of a specially trained dog; it’s an expensive undertaking.
Realities Families Face to Get a Service Dog
The following are some of the realities families have to deal with to getting a service dog.
- Depending on the organization, the cost for each animal can exceed $40,000.
- 4 Paws for Ability has a co-sharing model where the group fundraises for their work, but families in need are responsible for sharing the cost. At present, that means families have to come up with $17,000.
For Justin, a service dog was essential because it would help him hear sounds, especially vital ones like fire alarms, ringing phones, doorbells, or even his name if he were to be in a crowd of people. The reality is that people who have full hearing abilities often take for granted what a world without sound could mean.
The cost of Justin’s dog would be at least $46,000, and the family would have to raise $17,000 with the 4 Paws for Ability co-share model. However, for most families, including Justin’s, $17,000 is a lot of money. His family needed to come up with creative fundraising ideas.
4 Paws for Ability referred him to Funds2Orgs, which is the parent company of Shoes With Heart. Both businesses are considered the leading shoe drive fundraising companies in the nation.
The formula is simple: More shoes = More money.
Justin and his family collected gently worn, used and new shoes. No one had to donate money to the shoe drive fundraiser. They just had to empty out their homes and storage areas of all the shoes they no longer wanted or needed and give them to Justin’s shoe drive fundraiser. The footwear became currency for Justin and money toward his service dog.
Justin’s family promoted the shoe drive fundraiser using a variety of methods, including:
- The town Facebook pages so the entire community could become involved.
- Partnering with schools to collect shoes.
- Working with the local community chamber to send out information about the shoe drive fundraiser in their newsletter.
- Outreach to the media, which resulted in articles, including this one.
- Surrounding neighborhoods and churches also helped in collecting shoes for Justin’s cause.
Maybe one day, modern medicine will find a way to help Justin’s hearing, but for the moment, it cannot be fixed. Our team is so happy that so many people were able to show Justin the love by giving him shoes so he could get his service animal.
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