*August 2024 Update

We Met Sundae!

One of the highlights of our summer (and we did a lot of fun stuff) was meeting Sundae! We had some time with her when we attended the Patriot Service Dogs 15th Anniversary Celebration in Ocala. It was a very special night. In addition to hanging out with Sundae, we finally met Julie, the founder of PSD and saw Victoria, who previously surprised us at one of our lemonade stands. We also got to spend some time with Shweta, Sundae's volunteer summer raiser, and her family. It was an awesome night and we learned even more about PSD. We met several veterans and their service dogs and heard their powerful stories. It is an honor to be involved with such a unique organization. We're planning our next lemonade stand to do our part to help PSD continue doing great things!

We look forward to celebrating our B'Not Mitzvah with you. You'll hear more about our mitzvah project during our service, but we wanted to share some details in advance. It's a project that has been important to us since we were in second grade. It all began with an assignment to write about something we did that caused a chain reaction. Bailey wrote about the time we did our first lemonade stand for Patriot Service Dogs (PSD), an organization that trains service dogs for veterans. To our surprise, we became known as the "Lemonade Girls" and were told our donation was so unexpected, that it was like "kindness fell out of the sky." This launched our ongoing dedication to PSD and WOOF (Women Offering Obedience and Friendship), the group of incarcerated women responsible for training the service dogs.

Since 2017, we've done a variety of lemonade stand/bake sale fundraisers at a busy intersection in our community. We're thankful to our very generous and supportive friends and neighbors who have helped us to raise nearly $1,000 - that's a lot of homemade lemonade and baked goods (during our most recent winter sale, we swapped lemonade for hot cocoa!). Throughout the years, we've received letters from inmates thanking us for our support and taking an interest in them and their important efforts. We've learned that we are the only children who support Patriot Service Dogs. While we are incredibly proud of the funds we've raised so far, we want to do more.

Although we have been supporting PSD for years, we thought it made perfect sense to continue this positive chain reaction as our mitzvah project. Our goal is to raise an additional $6,000 as it takes approximately $7,000 to train one puppy that will eventually become a service dog to a veteran. We thank you in advance for helping us to recognize and support this incredible organization that is so special to us.

With lots of love and appreciation, Bailey & Shelby Kilman

Learn more about Patriot Service Dogs

Founded in 2009 and based in Marion County, Florida, Patriot Service Dogs trains high-quality service dogs for veterans without charge. The organization is an accredited member of Assistance Dogs International, the leading authority on assistance dogs world-wide. All dogs are trained to assist veterans struggling with a range of issues including PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury, MST, mobility loss, and more. To date, Patriot Service Dogs has matched 71 veterans with a service dog.

The two-year training each puppy undergoes is supported by sponsorship donations and conducted by volunteer puppy raisers and incarcerated women in the WOOF Prison Program at Lowell Correctional Facility. This dual training program creates a unique bond between volunteer members of the community, incarcerated women, sponsorship donors, and the veteran recipients.

With an average of 15-20 dogs in training at any time, Patriot Service Dogs is not a large organization, but its size is its strength. No volunteer, veteran, sponsor, or dog is just a name on a spreadsheet. Patriot Service Dogs is a community working hard together to improve the lives of veterans.

Patriot Service Dogs in a registered 501(c)(3) organization.

Bailey and Shelby's PSD Fundraising Page

By PATRIOT SERVICE DOGS

Bailey and Shelby's PSD Fundraising Page

Help sponsor a service dog puppy!