Ben McCall/Sun Photo
PAWS FOR A CAUSE: Katie Vahle, 11, left, and Hailey Lynch, 10, Prairie Village, started a youth volunteer group called H & K’s Service Paws and are sponsoring Amanda’s Dog Festival in honor of Katie’s sister Amanda. Proceeds will go to KSDS Inc., a nonprofit group that provides service dogs to disabled youth for free.
Join our Mailing List!
Please click the link below to sign up for your community paper mailing list. Stay up to date with all the events going on in your community as well as the latest news.Sign Up Today!
Amanda's Dog Festival
Girls start fundraiser to provide service dogs
By: Kelli Bamforth, Staff Writer
Amanda Vahle, 8, Prairie Village, sometimes has difficulty holding up her head. She has cerebral palsy, a brain disorder often causing poor motor function.
But when her sister, Katie, 11, asked her to be the namesake and poster girl for Amanda’s Dog Festival, her head popped right up and she screamed.
“She thinks it’s awesome,” said Katie, a student at Belinder Elementary School, 7230 Belinder Road, Prairie Village.
Katie and Haley Lynch, 10, also a Belinder student, formed a youth volunteer group called H & K’s Service Paws. Using this “company” name, they have created, developed and found sponsorship for Amanda’s Dog Festival, an event benefiting KSDS Inc., a nonprofit organization providing service dogs to disabled youth for free.
KSDS service dogs help disabled individuals by completing such tasks as turning lights off and on, retrieving dropped items and helping them dress and undress.
“I wish (service dogs) could do homework, too,” Katie said.
The festival takes place from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7, at Porter Park, 73rd Street and Roe Avenue, Prairie Village.
The lineup includes Noah’s First Response Crisis Dogs from Nebraska, an organization providing dogs at emergency scenes to calm those injured or otherwise involved; Reading Education Assistance Dogs, or R.E.A.D., a program seeking to improve children’s reading and communication skills by having kids read to a therapy dog; and the Leawood Police Department K-9 unit, which will demonstrate their dogs’ ability to sniff out drugs.
The girls’ mentor, Paige O’Connor, worked with the girls for four months to help them develop a community service project based on their interests.
“Katie had always been fascinated with service dogs, knowing Amanda would need one eventually,” O’Connor said. “Haley loves dogs, too, so when we discovered their common passion that’s how it developed.”
O’Connor may have provided guidance, but the girls by themselves worked to develop a company name and logo and approached companies for sponsorship.
Sponsors are Bank of Prairie Village, Brookside Barkery and Bath, Fairway Animal Hospital, Hecker Animal Clinic, Land of Paws, Prairie Village Animal Hospital and ProActive Solutions.
Katie said one thing she learned while planning the festival is how to work with adults.
“I learned eye contact and how to shake hands,” she said. “They normally don’t expect us to shake their hands.”
The girls raised $4,000 in seed money to put on the festival. Proceeds from children’s booths and food stands, along with donations from festival attendees, will all go to KSDS.
Other youth organizations, including Kids Helping Kids, will assist at the festival. About 40 volunteers will help the day of the event, not including individuals from the different organizations expected to be present.
Other activities will include a Dalmatian moon walk, face painting, pet artists and doggie-style manicures.
Katie said she looks forward to the pet adoptions. Wayside Waifs and the Humane Society will be on site for those seeking to adopt an animal.
“They’ve got some pretty cute animals at the Humane Society,” Katie said.
“I look forward to working at the booths and selling stuff,” Haley said.
Dog contests at 2 p.m. will determine the cutest, funniest-looking and best-costumed pooch at the festival.
O’Connor said she has been involved in community service for 10 years and has branched out to help kids with their own volunteering.
“Once they get a taste of it, that’s all they want to do,” she said. “It empowers them … it teaches them more than they learn from other clubs or athletics. It opens them up to a broader world. These kids are fortunate, but when they start seeing others not as fortunate they start not taking things for granted.”
Fast Facts
Amanda’s Dog Festival is from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7, at Porter Park, 73rd Street and Roe Avenue, Prairie Village. Proceeds benefit KSDS Inc., a nonprofit organization providing service dogs to the disabled free of charge.
To make a donation or for more information, contact volunteer mentor Paige O’Connor at 722-5504 or cpaigeoc@sbcglobal.net.
printable version
e-mail this story
But when her sister, Katie, 11, asked her to be the namesake and poster girl for Amanda’s Dog Festival, her head popped right up and she screamed.
“She thinks it’s awesome,” said Katie, a student at Belinder Elementary School, 7230 Belinder Road, Prairie Village.
Katie and Haley Lynch, 10, also a Belinder student, formed a youth volunteer group called H & K’s Service Paws. Using this “company” name, they have created, developed and found sponsorship for Amanda’s Dog Festival, an event benefiting KSDS Inc., a nonprofit organization providing service dogs to disabled youth for free.
KSDS service dogs help disabled individuals by completing such tasks as turning lights off and on, retrieving dropped items and helping them dress and undress.
“I wish (service dogs) could do homework, too,” Katie said.
The festival takes place from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7, at Porter Park, 73rd Street and Roe Avenue, Prairie Village.
The lineup includes Noah’s First Response Crisis Dogs from Nebraska, an organization providing dogs at emergency scenes to calm those injured or otherwise involved; Reading Education Assistance Dogs, or R.E.A.D., a program seeking to improve children’s reading and communication skills by having kids read to a therapy dog; and the Leawood Police Department K-9 unit, which will demonstrate their dogs’ ability to sniff out drugs.
The girls’ mentor, Paige O’Connor, worked with the girls for four months to help them develop a community service project based on their interests.
“Katie had always been fascinated with service dogs, knowing Amanda would need one eventually,” O’Connor said. “Haley loves dogs, too, so when we discovered their common passion that’s how it developed.”
O’Connor may have provided guidance, but the girls by themselves worked to develop a company name and logo and approached companies for sponsorship.
Sponsors are Bank of Prairie Village, Brookside Barkery and Bath, Fairway Animal Hospital, Hecker Animal Clinic, Land of Paws, Prairie Village Animal Hospital and ProActive Solutions.
Katie said one thing she learned while planning the festival is how to work with adults.
“I learned eye contact and how to shake hands,” she said. “They normally don’t expect us to shake their hands.”
The girls raised $4,000 in seed money to put on the festival. Proceeds from children’s booths and food stands, along with donations from festival attendees, will all go to KSDS.
Other youth organizations, including Kids Helping Kids, will assist at the festival. About 40 volunteers will help the day of the event, not including individuals from the different organizations expected to be present.
Other activities will include a Dalmatian moon walk, face painting, pet artists and doggie-style manicures.
Katie said she looks forward to the pet adoptions. Wayside Waifs and the Humane Society will be on site for those seeking to adopt an animal.
“They’ve got some pretty cute animals at the Humane Society,” Katie said.
“I look forward to working at the booths and selling stuff,” Haley said.
Dog contests at 2 p.m. will determine the cutest, funniest-looking and best-costumed pooch at the festival.
O’Connor said she has been involved in community service for 10 years and has branched out to help kids with their own volunteering.
“Once they get a taste of it, that’s all they want to do,” she said. “It empowers them … it teaches them more than they learn from other clubs or athletics. It opens them up to a broader world. These kids are fortunate, but when they start seeing others not as fortunate they start not taking things for granted.”
Fast Facts
Amanda’s Dog Festival is from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7, at Porter Park, 73rd Street and Roe Avenue, Prairie Village. Proceeds benefit KSDS Inc., a nonprofit organization providing service dogs to the disabled free of charge.
To make a donation or for more information, contact volunteer mentor Paige O’Connor at 722-5504 or cpaigeoc@sbcglobal.net.