Hope For Sunshine! Grants for Service Dogs for special need kids.
Our goal is to help families with medically complex children raise funds to help cover the cost of service dogs and equipment
Our Journey
We live in North Carolina and this little girl is our daughter Mattaniah (Mattie). She was born with a genetic disorder called Sotos Syndrome. She also has Epilepsy. She has 4 different types of seizures. She has been through a lot. She has endured multiple surgeries; including open heart surgery last year. She has been our Warrior Princess through all of it! She has more surgeries ahead and we will meet those challenges as they arise! Even with medication for her epilepsy; Mattie has still had seizures that have disrupted her life! She really just wants to play and do all the things other kids do but she is limited in how independent she can be and how much she can do at this time.
A couple years ago; her doctors have recommended a seizure alert and response service dog to help us and Mattie with more independence. Unfortunately, most medical insurance does not cover obtaining or training a service dog. It is very expensive at $25,000. So we worked hard and fund-raised to cover the cost. We also had generous supporters and a very supportive community.
We worked with Appalachian Dog Trainers LLC in Asheville. She was matched with a dog whom she has named “Sunshine” and is in the process of training with the Sunshine who will come home in January 2025.
Our Goals
In researching service dogs and children with special needs and ways to help our own daughter: we discovered that our problem is a common problem for many special needs families. Service dogs are life saving for some families and are considered medically beneficial by the ADA (Americans with disabilities act), and the federal government.
Sadly; with most insurance not covering the cost of obtaining and training these working medically necessary dogs, Service dogs for children like ours; it can be $ 25,000 - $50,000 and it is left to the families to try and cover the entire cost themselves.
Since we had successfully thrown ourselves into fundraising and were blessed to have so much support and were able to make this happen for our child, we found we also have a great desire to help other children like our daughter.
Therefore, We have decided to start this nonprofit “Hope4Sunshine”! Our intent is to continue helping to fund service dogs for kids in need; by offering Grants to families working on their own fundraising for their children. We hope to help offset some of the costs incurred by these families. Please follow us and join our cause if you are able by donating and sharing with others our “Hope for Sunshine”!
Support Hope for Sunshine - Service Dogs for medically fragile children
North Carolina General Statutes - Chapter 168
(a) Every person with a disability has the right to be accompanied by a service animal trained to assist the person with his or her specific disability in any of the places listed in G.S. 168-3, and has the right to keep the service animal on any premises the person leases, rents, or uses.