Canine Angels, Inc.

Hi everyone! My name is Maria Waters, and I’m raising money towards Declan's service dog training cost.

Maria Waters' story is one of resilience and determination.

She was an award winning VICA high school state president, ran for national president in college. Was in Who's Who Among American High School Students.

She's a former Navy SeaBee CE (Construction Electrician) an athlete and bodybuilder who suffered a series of severe injuries and health issues, including:

- A fall from a utility pole that damaged her right knee and caused migraines, short-term memory loss, and long-term memory loss

- Severe pancreatitis that led to diabetes

- A brain aneurysm

- A serious infection in her left foot that almost required amputation, leaving it deformed

These challenges have significantly impacted her daily life, making everyday tasks difficult due to limited mobility, balance issues, and anxiety from PTSD.

Despite these obstacles,

Maria is determined to regain some independence with the help of a service dog named Declan, he is an Irish Wolfhound.

Maria is raising funds to cover the cost of Declan's training, which includes over 500 hours of training over 6-8 months.

She's close to her goal but still needs $10,000 to move forward, out of the $25,000 needed.

The training will enable him to perform specific tasks, including:

1. Bringing down Maria's anxiety from PTSD

2. Helping balance Maria while standing or walking

3. Alerting Maria when her blood sugar levels drop too low due to diabetes.

I would like to be more independent, but I cannot sit or stand for long periods of time.

I need help with balance, because my left foot was almost amputated.

It is deformed now, but the surgeon and infectious disease doctors saved my foot.

I have had to learn to walk again and it has taken many years.

Please help me raise the needed funds to train my puppy Declan, to be my service dog.

He has already been assessed by the trainer, as a candidate for being a service dog.

Donations will go to a non-profit organization called Canine Angels Service Dogs.

www.canineangelsusa.org, dropdown menu to donation page.

In all cases “DECLAN” should be indicated.

There are 4 ways to donate directly to Canine Angels:

1. Mail a check to CA, 2873 Loblolly Ave, Little River SC 29566.

2. Zelle a donation to 917 575 6235

3. Go to our website donation page

4. This go-fund-me page

Please feel free to research them at https:// www.facebook.com/share/1V3AZ;Ptro/?mibextid=wwXlfr.

If you know of any organization or business I can contract, thru their social media or by sending a hard copy to, please let me know.

The training is being provided by Canine Angels Service Dogs, a non-profit organization.

So any donationwill be appreciated, and it's a tax write off, because the donations go directly to the non-profit.

I would truly be greatful for anyone who would post this to their social media pages.

Declan is now my lifeline.

I understand if you can't donate, but please share to your friends, family, organizations, and businesses you know.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Brightest Blessings,

Maria (Long-LaTour) Waters

Hi I'm Alicia Jones I am medically retired from my local Sheriff's Office. A lifetime of extensive personal trauma (physical, sexual, mental and psychological,) and professional trauma left me overwhelmed with all the flashbacks to EVERYTHING I had endured. It was as if it was a video continuously played on a loop. After an awful incident involving the deaths of two women and the lives of two officers I knew well turned completely upside down, the top blew off the box I had been hiding my horrific memories in. I found myself standing over the intercoastal waterway bridge late at night on a bitter cold night. However, I was drenched in sweat and I thought I deserved to die exactly how my sister did, and drown like the two women did who were trapped inside of a transport van did. Their screams haunting me then, and still now years later. Thankfully a police officer and amazing therapist I was seeing came to my rescue. That night I was admitted to a psychiatric hospital and hospitalized for over a week. More attempts and overwhelming, heavy, painful thoughts would continue to flood my mind. And more hospitalizations followed. As well as a trip out of state to Florida and a year later Utah for residental treatment for First Responders. It helped, but all of my traumas didnt occur over one night and they won't go away that quickly either. They may never truly go away, I am just hopeful that I will be able to find a peace to live with the things that were done to me and the experiences that I have endured. I often feel like a burden and struggle with exteme anxiety and depression. Some times those suicidal thoughts creep back in. I have been in therapy a minimum of one time weekly, since October of 2018. My severe PTSD symptoms have taken so much from me. As once a very social person, I feel I don't even recognize myself anymore... because something as simple as a trip to the grocery store or gas station causes extreme anxiety. I stay in a constant state of hypervigilance. I'm always expecting and preparing for the worst case scenarios to play out in front of me.... hurting me or even worse my children and family. It has affected how I parent and changed the Mom my three littles, and two adult children once knew. I have to take my life back. I realize now after running away from a lifetime of trauma that not talking about any of it or properly processing trauma, equals one thing... a recipe for disaster. My brain said enough was enough and I lost my whole desire to be alive. I felt I didn't deserve the family and friends that I had and that they deserved someone else to fulfill the role that I served in their lives. Nothing mattered and important things felt like meaningless tasks because my thoughts and feelings of overwhelm took control of me.

In the Fall of 2020 we welcomed a Goldendoodle named, General Patton into our home. My plan was to train him to become a service dog. Training a puppy service dog behaviors and tasks is almost impossible. So we began with basic, intermediate and advanced obedience training as well as Canine Good Citizen training. Patton is now two and is ready to begin "Doggy Bootcamp" at Canine Angels a non-profit organization in Little River, South Carolina. Patton will be away at intensive training for approximately 30 days and then after a month, I will begin working with the trainer and Patton. We have heard and seen nothing but positive experiences and very well trained service dogs come from this amazing non-profit. My cost of the boot camp as well as working with the trainer and Patton for 6 months to a year is $7,500. I feel so overwhelmed and ashamed to be asking for money but as some time has passed and some meaningful conversations have been had, I have realized that I deserve a better quality of life. Managing my severe symptoms with the help of a trained service dog will help me become a less anxious, depressed, and a less overstimulated Mom, Wife, Daughter, friend and just be able to interact less stressfully with others in general.

If you find it in your heart to be able to help with this cause, it would is so appreciated. All money raised is a tax deductible donation made directly to Canine Angels on Patton and I's behalf. If you donate through a different channel (their website, in person etc.) Please mention that you would like the donation to be put towards Patton's service dog training.

Thanks in advance for your contribution to this cause that means so much to my family and I.

More information about Canine Angels, Inc.: To rescue dogs from our local humane societies, to train them to become working service dogs, and to place them with local Disabled Veterans, First Responders, and Autistic children in order to Improve their lives. Our dogs ore trained to mitigate both physical and psycologlc disabilities Including PTSD and TBI. Our mission is to give our Veterans and First Responders some of the freedom and safety they lost while defending ours, and to give autistic kids a chance at independence and hope for the future.

Other ways to help or learn more about Patton and I, check out our story on our Facebook page: Patton's Picks, or my art page (Painting Patton's Path,) where all proceeds will also be made to Canine Angels and help us begin this process and start training for a better life for Patton, my family and I.