Our mission is to obtain the funding needed to obtain a fully trained service dog for our daughter Adriana from Autism Service Dogs of America (ASDA).

Our daughter Adriana has autism, a disorder involving a spectrum of symptoms causing impaired and delayed learning, and difficulties with impulse control and social skills.

We are seeking a service dog for Adriana. The service dog agency, Autism Service Dogs of America is a non profit organization located just outside Portland, Oregon. The donation level required for the dog is $13,500. We will need approximately $3,000 - $5,000 in addition to the acquisition funds to finance our ASDA placement training both in Oregon and at home. This amount will cover our Oregon training which includes our airfare, rental car, hotel and meals. It will also cover the second phase of training at our home that includes the trainer’s airfare, hotel and car rental (not meals). All trainer compensation and meals are paid for by ASDA. This additional $3,000 - $5,000 can not be a donation directly to ASDA and thus is not tax deductible.

Our family kindly asks that you help us in raising funds to provide Adriana with an ASDA service dog specifically trained to assist children with autism. An ASDA service dog will assist Adriana by helping us assure Adriana is safe when we leave our home. It is difficult to have Adriana in public, she has no sense of danger and often darts into streets and parking lots. Having a service dog with Adriana will help keep Adriana safe while we are out in public. Also the dog will serve as an emotional anchor calming Adriana in public and avoiding the uncontrollable meltdowns. Other families who have received these dogs report an increase in speech and social skills because the child talks to the dog as if he were a friend. Families that have received these type of dogs also report their child’s classroom learning and on task behavior improves with the presence of the service dog. While the benefits of service dogs for children with autism vary from child to child, early results indicate that children served by a trained service dog demonstrate marked improvement in mood, socialization, learning and general psychological and sociological
development.

To learn more about autism service dogs and Autism Service Dogs of America, please visit the website, www.autismservicedogsofamerica.org.