How it Began
In February 2004, I read a story about a girl from California, who was raising funds to buy bullet-proof vests for police dogs in California, but mainly in the United States not in Canada. I thought this was a great idea. I went on the internet and researched it, and read more in books. The more I thought, read and researched it the more I thought "someone should do this in Canada." I knew that the only way to be sure that someone did it in Canada, was to do it myself. I told my mother, who called our local Police Station and set up an appointment for Sep's Handler Constable Mike Grant and I to talk. I said I had an idea to start this fundraiser. He suggested that I team up with Therapeutic Paws of Canada as they had approached him with the same idea and get this fundraiser on the go!!
Only a few weeks later I had come up with a name for the fundraiser, Protect A Life or PAL for short. Constable Grant, Sep, Therapeutic Paws and I had a weekend fundraiser at the Brockville 1000 Island Mall. The support there was great, at the end of the weekend I received a phone call from Therapeutic Paws and they told me the total..... $904.00!!! I was amazed, I was so happy. Then to top that, just to show me what a great city Brockville really is, the next day Don Hutton called Therapeutic Paws and said "how much money is still needed for Sep's vest?" They said "around $1600" and he said "I'll write the cheque for the rest of the money!" When I heard that I screamed with joy. Sep's vest arrived on April 15th 2004, He loves it!