As many of your already know, since my appearance of The Office I have very much wanted to find a way to “Pay it Forward” and take the opportunity I was given to do some good. I was so extremely lucky to be given the part of “Cool Guy Paul” of Disaster Kits Limited and felt I had to share in the good fortune.
My character is the sole owner of a company that makes and sells Emergency Preparedness Kits and supplies. These are products that people would need or use if they were every faced with a disaster. During a disaster: hurricane, fire, flood, earthquake, act of terror and any of a long list a terrible events there are many people who respond. This list includes police, fire, EMT’s, C.E.R.T. team volunteers, Red Cross, military, Coast Guard and depending on the incident many other groups. One type of responder that is not often talked about but is extremely important and desperately needed are search and rescue dogs and their handlers. These dogs have the ability to do things that in some cases humans simply cannot do and in other cases….they just do it much better and quicker (in most situations…time saved…means lives saved)
With their ultra-sensitive hearing, night vision, endurance and keen sense of smell these dogs perform takes such as:
1. Finding a lost person in the woods
2. Following a patient with Alzheimer’s missing from a nursing home
3. Locate a skier buried in an Avalanche
4. Assist law enforcement with crime scenes
5. Find live people trapped in collapsed buildings
6. Locate drowning victims
This is just short list of some of the amazing things these dogs and their handlers do in extremely dangerous and often unstable environments, in any weather, day or night. As a volunteer firefighter I have been on calls and seen these dogs in action.
From what I have found, most of these dog teams are operated by volunteers. These very unique, brave and talented people give up their time and money to find and train these dogs. Not only does the dog have to go through training but so does the handler. They have to learn to work with the dog as a team to perform the necessary task. This training can take anywhere from one to two years. Between finding and caring for the dog, travel, training courses and deployment this can get to be expensive.
I decided a while ago that I was going to sponsor a dog. I wanted to be able to provide all the money necessary to find and train at least one of these amazing animals and support their team. I wanted to do this for 2 main reasons.
1. To take the amazing opportunity I was given and do something more with it then just benefit myself.
2. To help educate and make people more aware of these great animals, their handlers and what they do.
After a long search I am happy to report that I have found a dog and handler and have already begun my support. Here is a quick brief:
He is a yellow lab/golden retriever mix and was found at an animal shelter in May of last year. He had been given up for adoption by his previous owner who thought he was overly aggressive and who did not have time for a growing puppy. He was evaluated and placed into a Paws of Life foster home and for the next three months learned how to play tug and that people were fun. He then went to training with FEMA K9 handlers who saw a significant amount of potential in him. At 6 months old he was competing basic tasks for his search dog training such as barking at hidden people, playing tug and agility.
He is now in training for a state urban search and rescue team and a wilderness search team. He’s working on obedience, agility and searching rubble and wooded areas in training. He’s learning to walk off leash, stay for 5 minutes, come to an emergency stop when called and navigate a complicated agility course. Over the next few months he will also be learning how to work out complex scent problems with his nose and bark to tell us he’s found the person. After that his training will get more technical. I plan to send out a monthly update on his progress.
HERE IS THE BEST PART!!!
This dog…who if all things go according to plan…and who will be trained and deployed to save lives is named “Dunder“. He was obviously named after a paper company that most of you know.
I will be supporting “Dunder” in a number of ways:
1. I will be taking a % of all sales from my company and donating it to various organizations and charities involved in the search, rescue and response field. ‘Dunder” and Paws of Life will be one of them.
2. If I am fortunate enough to have my character appear in a future episode I will be donating a portion of what I am paid to “Dunders”: support.
3. I will be exploring other fundraising and awareness options.
For more information on “Dunder” and Paws of Life you can go to www.1800prepare.com and click on the Charities We Support link. There you can click on the link to Paws of Life. This will take you to a page that shows information and a picture of “Dunder”. It is also a place where if you want you can make your own donation to help support “Dunder”. By no means am I asking you to make a donation. I am fully committed to supporting this myself. However…please feel free to make a donation if you would like.
I have already discussed with “Dunders” handler who also happens to run Paws of Life that is we raise enough money I want to find another dog who will be named……”Mifflin“. I am confident I will reach this goal.
Ok….this blog post is already about 300 words longer then I planned. Until next time….Be Ready….Be Prepared….and stay safe.
All the best,
Paul