Hello everyone. We are Greg and Stevie, the parents of Greyson. We are creating a fundraiser to help Greyson. That help will be in the form of our dog Winterbelle. We have had her evaluated and she is a good candidate to become a service dog for Greyson.

As most of you reading this know, our son is an amazing young man. At an early age he’s shown kindness and a strong sense of helping those in need. He created, with our assistance, Helping Footprint. Helping Footprint, for those that don’t know, is a charity organization that helps Military Veterans, First Responder, lower income families, and as Greyson calls them “differently abled’ folks. Helping Footprint has donated thousands of dollars to help with bills, food, and adopted families at Christmas to assist with gifts. He has given hours of time helping those groups with yardwork and helped assist with storm prep for Hurricane Florence. At 9 years old we couldn’t be prouder of his accomplishments so far and are expecting many more things to come.

Now he is in need of your help for himself. Greyson, as some of you know, has been diagnosed with Autism. This took many years of doctor’s appointments and evaluations. Because of some of his quirks and social issues we have homeschooled Greyson for many years. Greyson approached us this year and told us it was time to try and go back to school to make some friends. Academically he is advanced. Problems have risen for a number of reasons. Greyson has anxiety issues, is a bit on the awkward side for his age, and has Sensory Processing Disorder along with the Autism. We also have issues with him with crowds ie: stores, events, and other things. While Greyson is really a “normal” 9 year old boy who likes and enjoys what others his age, his coping and social skills are not where they need to be. With autistic children Greyson takes things literally and is honest to a fault which at times has been an issue because he doesn’t understand that sometimes it’s best to keep some things to himself. Greyson has shown that he has a strong fight or flight response to overwhelming anxiety and sensory issues, mainly noise. He has run off from teachers and hidden under desks and hidden in the bathrooms. As anyone with children knows it is a huge safety issue and does not help with being socially accepted by kids his age.

This is where Winterbelle will come in. As I said Belle has been evaluated as a very strong candidate to be able to be a service dog to assist Greyson with keeping composure before triggering a meltdown. With the training she would receive, Belle would sense his emotions and assist him down by laying or sitting on him. He responds to pressure like weighted vests, blankets, and headphones for noise. He was being made fun of at the last school we tried for him and he has become self-conscious and will not wear them consistently or at all. Either Greyson when feeling anxious can go have a “timeout” and Belle assist him or if Belle begins to sense his anxiety and emotions rise she will be trained to place her paws on his chest like a hugging gesture and Greyson will then have a seat and she will sit or lay on him for a short time and get the pressure he needs to regulate his emotions and anxiety.

Now the reason we’ve written this plea for help is the cost. We have found a wonderful organization that is willing to donate over half of the cost to Winterbelle’s training. While we are grateful for this, it still doesn’t solve our entire problem. Even with half of the cost we will still be looking at $10,000 we need to come up with. It is a pretty big financial commitment and we need your help. Belle will be going through approximately one month, or 700 hours of boot camp for the obedience and discipline training. After that month she will come home and will be going back weekly. She’s a good dog of course but the training will teach her to ignore basically everything but her tasks while she’s working and that doesn’t cover her specialty task training. All in all she will be training over 1,000 hours and this is what the cost entails. Time and effort. Well worth it in the end to help him.

So this is where you come in everyone. To those who have donated time, funding, and items to assist Greyson with his charity work let us first say thank you. Without you Greyson wouldn’t be able to do the work he does. So again thank you for all you’ve done. That said, Stevie and I now ask you to find it in your hearts to help the young man who has helped so many others. We know people are struggling out there with the economy the way it is. We are all feeling the pinch. We’re asking for whatever you can give. Every penny helps and we’ll be grateful for anything you can spare in these tough times. Greyson will benefit from this for years to come. Of course, if we exceed our mark all money will then be turned right around into donations to others as always. Not one cent over the mark will be kept for Greyson and will be sent right into Helping Footprint.

One behalf of our entire family and Helping Footprint thank you for reading this and taking the time to help. “The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention”-Oscar Wilde