My name is Mars. I'm 14 years old and I’m diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and various other disorders. But more than that, I’m a person. I love psychology and human behavior, playing guitar, and making art. Overall, I love to learn. But it becomes difficult when I’m disabled by my disorders, where I’m too anxious or overwhelmed to be in a regular school. When I can't fall asleep because I feel as though I’m being watched or someone is in the house. When I have difficulty going to stores, even with my parents, because I become so overwhelmed I can’t function.

Over the past year, I spent time researching getting a service dog. I’ve been in therapy for years and been on various medicines since September 2022, but I was still struggling. I’ve known vaguely of Service Dogs for a while, but I saw someone who has one for their Autism, known as a Psychiatric Service Dog, or more specifically an Autism Assistance Dog. After seeing that, I spent a few months researching Service Dogs. I then made slides and papers compiling how a Service Dog help me and discussed it with my therapist, my parents, and my psychiatrist in that order.

I applied for a service dog from Canine Support Teams (https://caninesupportteams.org) and went through an interview process. A week after the interview, on November 6, I received an email. I was approved.

Currently I’m in an already expensive private school in an attempt to make school more accessible for me, so I’m fundraising the $10,000 I need for my service dog. If you have the money spare, please donate!

Thank you so much,

Mars and family :)