Letter to Friends and Family

Dear Friends and Family of Riley,

Many of you know that we are on a journey to getting Riley a service dog. One that will help him gain independence and also provide unconditional love and companionship to him. As you may have guessed it is extremely expensive to get a SD. We are talking upwards of $15,000. We have chosen the least expensive route (out of center training) but have a lot of fund-raising to do and hoping for community support for a little boy in need. His safety depends on it. We live in constant fear that one day Riley will disappear and never return again. Highway 99W is four houses away and he has made it to the highway before without anybody ever seeing him escape. I can never thank the Hispanic family that once lived there enough for grabbing his hand before he entered the oncoming traffic. They couldn't speak any English but they knew from our tears they were Hero's in our eyes. We almost lost our son at age 3. Unfortunately I could tell you a hundred more stories just like this one. Him running straight into pure danger.

Riley's dog would be trained to stay with Riley constantly. The training also includes Alerting us as the parents should Riley ever try and run away while in the home and not harnessed. In public Riley would be harnessed to his Dog (which by the way will be a Golden Retriever from excellent Obedience, Rally, Grand Champions Titled parents) . The harness is attached to Riley and then attached to the Dog. Then there another leash for the parent to hold from behind. Riley feels independent without the constant holding hands or sitting in the stroller (at age 5 is frustrating). And we in turn get to go on one outing where we aren't in constant fear. We currently have the use of a GPS device. Although we can locate Riley it does not stop him and often it is too late. For example....running into the Ocean, down an embankment, into the lake, river, swimming pool, into the highway, street, parking lot, loose dogs, crowds of people etc.Try to imagine the state of fear we constantly live in with our young son. It is quite overwhelming. When the Service Dog Team gets older we won't need to hold the leash anymore and when Riley feels the compulsive need to run the dog will automatically go into a sit stay and use it's massive body to stop Riley. Our doctors, specialists and therapists are behind this 100%. And we are elated that we are finally on our journey! The only problem is....we can't do it without you.

Here is the link to his blog: http://servicedogforriley.blogspot.com

Our Fundraising efforts will start with a Service Dog for Riley Yard Sale August 28, 29 and 30th at our home. We have tons of stuff to sell and we come here asking to see if there is any way his friends and family can help! I am hoping a few of you would like to come forward and help us out and help Riley get his service dog. I understand many of you won't be able to and that is ok! In fact there are a couple on the list that live many states away. :) I included you anyways! Even a couple hours of help would be so great!
We are hoping to have this event well organized and advertised and know that the Newberg/Dundee community is an awesome community. We feel confidant that when the word gets out about our benefit sale that we will be able to fund raise enough to get Riley his dog.
All proceeds will go toward the purchase of his dog, the extensive training, and the vet care.


Ways to help would be:

Donating goods to sell
Rounding up tables to use in the sale (We don't have any)
Anybody have a clothing rack? We have tons and tons of namebrand childrens clothing in excellent condition.
Helping sort, organize and price the items the week prior to the sale
Child care during the week prior
Child care the days of the sale
Helpers during the sale ( I will be honest with you. I don't do yard sales, never have, and don't know how to. I'm too nice and would give everything away :) Is anybody good at this? Dawn??? You seem so savvy. You free to help??? Please?? :)
Advertising ( I have purchased a large vinyl banner with graphics, pictures and info to place on 99W right by our home to get business and very nice high gloss professionally printed flyers that will need to be placed in the community)
Donating Services
Monetary donations


With that said......Who's on board? :)

Love to you all,

The Smith Family

Morgan, Sarah, Brennen, Aggie, Riley, and Aiden