Community Helps Family Get Service Dog For Son

July 27, 2020

A community in Texas rallied behind a 14-year-old trying to raise funds for a service dog to help with his Autism.

community helps boy get service dog
Credit: Luke's Dog Blog

Luke Berridge has high functioning Autism, but the family says he still has anxiety and episodes in which he needs additional help.

Now that he is growing up, his parents want him to gain more independence. After researching for a few months, his mother Jessica was sold on the idea of a service dog.

When she learned how much it would cost, the family decided to fundraise by baking brownies.

community helps boy get service dog
Credit: Luke's Dog Blog

It took just two weeks to raise almost $4,000.

Anonymous donors poured money in and ordered brownies to be delivered to front line workers.

"We weren't expecting this kind of outpouring," said Luke's father, Todd. "We know we are in pretty dire straights at this time. We are all wearing masks and staying away from each other but my goodness this just proves if you have one thing happened good, everyone just wants to be apart of it. Some people donated their brownies and their money and said we'd like you to deliver it to Fire Station Number 5, the Odessa Police Department the Ector County Sheriff (office). Luke had a great time going to the police department, the sheriff department. So we've been doing all sorts of different things, it's been great."

community helps boy get service dog
Credit: Luke's Dog Blog

The family posts updates of the baking and dog search on a Facebook page called "Luke's Dog Blog" and will soon post the dog with his or her name when they pick him or her out.

Until then, Luke want's to let the community know how much this means to him.

"Thank you for helping me get my service dog!" Luke posted.