We are Pop Smoke K9 for Veterans, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in Palm Coast, Florida.

We train psychiatric service dogs and place them with veterans and first responders at no cost. Not reduced cost. No cost. A veteran does not wait on a check to clear before they get help.

We have placed roughly 25 dogs. More than half of those went to Florida veterans.

We are raising $9,000 for a high top cargo van.

Here is why.

Everything we do involves moving. We drive veterans to their dogs. We drive dogs to their veterans. We move dogs to training, to the vet, to public access work in stores and restaurants so they are ready for the life their handler actually lives. Right now all of that happens in whatever vehicle we can borrow or squeeze into.

That works on a good day.

It does not work when the weather turns. We are in hurricane season in Florida. When a storm comes at us, we need one vehicle that can carry crated dogs out of the path of it in a single trip. Not three trips. One. That is the whole reason this fundraiser exists.

The van will not sit idle between transports.

We are launching K9 Cardio, a mobile canine exercise service that runs out of that same van. Veterans run the routes and get paid for it. Dog owners who work long hours or live in apartments get their dogs exercised instead of leaving them to sit alone all day. The money comes back into Pop Smoke K9 every month.

That is the part we are proudest of. We are not trying to build something that has to come back and ask again next year. We are trying to build something that pays its own way and puts a veteran to work while it does.

It serves both ends of the leash.

Every dollar goes to the van. When the van is paid for, this fundraiser closes and we tell you exactly what we bought.

If you cannot give, share it. That helps just as much and it costs you nothing.