January 2017
Roy Gomm School K9 Fundraiser

Two young school girls, Adele and Elise, assisted K9 Partners at the Reno Running Company Run for K9’s fundraiser in the fall of 2016 by giving away coffee and taking donations. They were so excited about helping the police dogs that they approached their Principal, Mr. Sullivan, at the Roy Gomm Elementary School to ask if they could do a penny drive through the school with proceeds going to the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office for bullet proof vests and other equipment for the dogs. The Principal was immediately on board supporting the event and put the girls in charge of organizing and promoting the event. Collection jars were going in all class rooms and the event would be week long with children bringing in spare change for the dogs. K9 Partners had offered to do something special for the “winning” class such as a pizza party or ? The Principal turned us down? When asked why…….he responded that the school has done other fundraising events in the past and the lesson he wanted to instill in the children was that they were doing this to help the causes and not to help because they got a reward!

Our hats are off to Mr. Sullivan and we learned a great lesson that day. We know that we do it for the cause itself but what an incredible Principal and what he was teaching all these students at such a young age. After the event was over, the Principal informed us that he was overwhelmed by other children approaching him with ideas of their own for future fundraisers. Lesson taught and learned.

The girls made signs, decorated collection jars, and prepared their speeches. To kick off the event, the Sheriff’s Office brought in dogs to the school and hosted 3 auditorium events totaling 450 children. The dogs weaved in and out of the children, getting petted, and creating excitement. The event was on! In that next week, not only did children bring coin into the school, but some of the students went door to door in their neighborhoods collecting money for the dogs.

One special story comes to mind. A young boy grabbed his full piggy bank from his bedroom as he was leaving for school that morning. His mother quickly questioned him as to what he was doing? He explained that he was “giving the money to Adele and Elise for their dogs”. Of course the mother was not sure why her son was giving money to the girls for their dogs? She called the girls mother, Emily, to ask Emily why she needed money from her son for their dog? After Emily explained what it was for, the mother was very supportive of her son’s choice and off he went to school proudly carrying his piggy bank.

In that week, the children raised in excess of $1,700 for the police dogs and through media exposure of the event, many other donations came in from the community and funded not only vests but other much needed equipment for our police dogs. After the event, the Sheriff’s Office brought back many of the dogs for another 3 assemblies to personally thank all the students. Thank you Elise and Adele and all the students at the Roy Gomm School in Reno, Nevada.