We traveled to the Los Olivos Rotary Club on the 19th of May. This was our second meeting with the club and we renewed  our friendships. John Mathews, President-elect was very gracious and gave us a presidental welcome. We spoke about all the updates that we have encountered within the last month. Some of these are still shocking to us...Applebee’s  restaurant chain has offered to let us do pancake breakfasts and we pay them a nominal fee and we keep the rest. We can also pass out flyers to different clubs and they give them to their server and Paws receives 15% of the bill, no alcohol involved! This can happen once a week, for over 600 restaurants...as long as we can get the Rotary Clubs in these areas on board. You pass out the flyers, go to dinner on a specific night, and Paws gets the monies.  Most of these involved us using Interact kids and we give them half the profit. They love helping Paws! We have done two BBQs with them, both at Minors Hardware, one in Morro Bay and the other in Los Osos. They, Applebee's, saw one of our brochures and THEY called us...the word is getting out.
 
We also went to Paso Robles Rotary in May and one Rotarian, who is connected to Idler's Home Center, is doing a Fundraiser during the Memorial Day Weekend.  A percentage of these funds goes right to acquire the dogs.  How nice is this...thank you to the Idler Family! We are making headway in the prison system...15 (trained) inmates training 6 dogs, 24/5.  The other two days they go home with the staff for socialization. Another organization that has stepped up is Lemos Feed.  We have donation jars and brochures in Morro Bay and Los Osos, and plan on getting them in the other 12 stores. These stores are located from Santa Barbara to Paso Robles. We are just waiting for approval from the managers, as they have some input, especially if they already have a local benefit on-going.  All good news! Much more on these as they continue to develop. We also were speakers at the Community Health Faire and received two more speaking engagements from that event.
 
On a different note, we are making some headway but we are running out of trainers! So, we decided to contact Cuesta and Hancock Colleges to see if they are interested in doing a College program.  There is only one university in the world that teaches Cynology- the studies of Canines. This will take awhile to become a reality but our Veterans are worth the time! 
 
One of our contacts is from Vandenberg Air Force Base. We will be helping our Rotarians from Santa Barbara County to help put a dog and veteran together there. We have had numerous leads from there and have a commitment from them for money, veterans and fundraisers...stay tuned for more! We are very excited about our progress... we have only had this up and running since September of last year and have had a major impact in this area...both financially and more importantly, we’ve had an impact with our VETERANS!
 
We, Paws for a Cause, want to personally thank Neil Walker and Scott Phillips who were encouraging and helpful getting these newsletters out to YOU!   Thanks from the bottom of our hearts!
 
For more information see: www.Pawsforacauseca.org  or call Gil Igleheart @ 805-710-0332