Fundraiser for Jace to get an AutismService Dog
Hi to everyone that reads this,
- Everyone keeps asking how they can help outside of prayers and love. This is a huge ask but this is what is on our hearts and truly a need to help Jace! It could even help Elijah as Elijah get’s older the more he is suffering with as well with his autism and diagnoses.
This fundraiser is for our son Jace Collett. He is 3 years old and will be 4 soon. As many of our family and friends know Jace has been diagnoses as autistic, severe general and social anxiety, and OCD. He suffers daily despite all the tools we provide for him. He goes to therapies twice a week. He is also being seen by a psychologist who is prescribing a medication that has helped him.
Jace has lots of meltdowns and shutdowns that can result in self harming behaviors (throwing things, biting himself, banging his body on to things, etc) as well as harming others. He struggles to go to social events, stores, any where were they may be a lot of people. He even struggles at home but less than an outing event. When we do have an event or he leaves the house at all, the next couple days is extremely hard. He is more fragile to say as he recovers from the experience. Which means any little thing and he will meltdown. He has several shutdowns a day where he will go limp and become unresponsive and mute (no talking at all) or have full on crying screaming meltdowns that nothing can soothe him. As well as a type of meltdown that he will end up throwing everything in his site which in return hits those around him.
Now Jace is also going down a medical journey on top of this with Cancer. We have no idea if his surgery coming up on the 30th will get it all or if there is more. We are praying he won’t need radiation or chemo. Praying for a miracle that it hasn’t spread to other parts of his little body as well. Which with his unknown medical future as well this is even more on our hearts.
We have exhausted all our support options which does help but he is still struggling. His occupational therapist, speech therapist, doctor, and psychologist all say that he would benefit hugely from a service dog. The service dog would be able to give him the deep pressure he needs, be constant thing in his life no matter where he goes, he can take the dog with him anywhere to help with his social anxiety, the dog can sense his meltdowns and shutdowns, his overwhelm ness and help console him. There is no need for him to communicate with the dog with words which is huge as Jace goes non verbal often when out of sorts. This is something we dream of getting for our son however the cost is so high and out of our reach.
We did a lot of research and finally found somewhere that had animals available to be trained for Jace. We just have to sign a contract and the puppy will be trained for his needs specifically. Due to Jace’s support needs he needs a level 10 which is one of the highest levels of support, therefore longer training is needed. Within 9-10 months the puppy will be ready for us to go up to Spokane WA to get trained with Jace for a week to two. Than we take the dog home. The dog will come with lifetime training, and support. The cost includes the dog, all vet bills, the boarding, the training, and much more!
The place we are working with is Dogology: Unleashed Academy in Spokane, WA.
Here is there website:
https://unleashedacademy.com/service-dogs/
Here is a video clip of some of the things an autism service dog can do:
Due to the level the dog needs to be and all the cost involved it is a pretty penny. It is anywhere between $25,000-$35,000 at minimum. I have set go fund me too $40,000 due to fees Go Fund Me takes out and hotel lodging we would also need when going to pick up the puppy with Jace to work with. Based on all my research, talking to therapists, specialists, and more this is the average cost for a service dog of this level. The sooner the better we get all the money needed for the service dog. We can’t sign the contract to begin the training which will be about 9-10 months from there before he is able to get the dog till we are able to confidently say we can pay for the service animal in full.
We appreciate anything that you can provide for us to reach this huge goal! It is a lot of money and we know that. We feel like this is the best thing for our us to help Jace and our family. If this is able to happen it would be a dream.