On Friday, Plant City’s local AMVETS Post 44 welcomed Mary Peter, the founder and executive director of training operations from K9 Partners for Patriots, to present her and the organization a check for $15,000 that was raised by fundraisers through the post.
“It costs us $15,000 to put a veteran and a dog through the program so we’ll pick a veteran and that’s what this particular money will go toward,” Peter said. “And we don’t charge veterans anything so we’ll pick one, let them know that this money has been donated on their behalf and let that veteran know that there are people who care. The money will go to change a life and maybe change a whole family’s life. That’s sometimes what happens, when a veteran’s life changes and they have a family then the whole family changes. Marriages are restored, kids have their dad or mom back, it’s just dominoes and it’s an amazing thing to watch.”
A Certified Master Dog Trainer, Peter has trained dogs professionally since 1987 and has trained service dogs since 1997. Previously operating a for-profit dog training organization, she closed down operations to kickstart K9 Partners for Patriots in 2013, a non-profit dog-training organization that offers services to veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder/traumatic brain injury and/or military sexual trauma at no cost to the veteran.
“It was founded because I saw the need,” Peter said. “I had a for-profit dog-training business and I saw veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan and they needed some help. They would sign up for my obedience classes but struggled in a civilian environment. It’s a God thing. I felt like God was telling me that I could do something so I closed my business and founded K9 Partners for Patriots.The whole goal is to give our veterans a mission. Many have lost camaraderie so we can give them camaraderie again but we give them a mission, that’s that they’re going to do all of the training on their own dog – or a dog we give them. It gives them a purpose, a function, it helps keep their mind occupied, there are less thoughts of suicide because they’ve got a dog to work with and they come once per week for a six month program with instructional homework every day that they have to do to reach a total of 360 training hours.”
K9 Partners for Patriots currently serves veterans from 41 different counties throughout the state of Florida, along with veterans that come from out of state for training. Since 2013, Peter and the organization have assisted 751 veterans. The training is dependent on each individual veteran, but services that the dogs provide at the conclusion of their training includes waking their owners during nightmares, redirecting their focus during flashbacks to avoid escalation, assist their owners in managing emotions and panic attacks and also building the confidence to re-adjust to public situations.
“We have some area rooms in our buildings like restaurant, cafe area, doctor’s office, pet store, we have grocery carts, then we take them grocery shopping and we take them out to eat,” Peter said. “We do all of these things after we’ve trained them inside the facility where they’re comfortable so that they can little by little take their life back.”
The fundraising efforts for this specific cause was spearheaded when AMVETS Post 44 Commander John Cameron and his wife Kathy, along with Americanism Representative Patti Alley, first discovered the organization and toured their facility. Instantly loving the cause, Post 44 inquired about the entire cost of putting a veteran and their dog through the training program and then began looking at how they could make it happen. The Post’s Ladies Auxiliary and the Riders – two groups within Post 44, alongside the Veterans and the Sons of AMVETS – took the challenge on as a team, holding cornhole tournaments, a ride, steak shoots and commander bartending days to raise funds.
“Our Post and the community came together in a huge way for this and really stepped up,” said Ladies Auxiliary President Christy Layton. “We raised the money in a matter of about three months which is pretty amazing. Like I said, the Post and all of the members really stepped up to make this happen. It started out as a Riders and Ladies event but it really ended up being an entire post event. Our AMVETS stepped up, our Sons stepped up and the community of course stepped up to make all of this happen.”
AMVETS Post 44 has raised over $100,000 for charity each of the past two years with their major fundraisers including Toys for Tots and their annual Golf Fundraiser and 9/11 event, with several smaller fundraising efforts taking place throughout the year and every dollar raised going back into the community.
To learn more about AMVETS Post 44, how to join or how to simply help with their fundraising efforts, visit www.amvetspost44.org. Upcoming fundraisers include a Ride To Remember Kensington Winchester and subsequent Gun Raffle on Saturday, July 8 and their annual 9/11 event taking place on Saturday, Sept. 9.
“The way to join us is just to come meet us,” Layton said. “Come to the Post and see if you like it. If you like the people and you like what we do then we can get you in. If you’re a veteran you can join the AMVETS, all you have to have is an honorable discharge with a DD214. If you’re not a veteran but your father, sister, brother, mother was a veteran and you’re a female then you can be a female you can join the Ladies Auxiliary, if you’re a male then you’d be a Sons of AMVETS member.”
For more information on K9 Partners for Patriots, including their team, their mission and ways to help, visit www.k9partnersforpatriots.com.