Frattellone Project a Success!

We left October 19th for a  2 1/2 week road trip across the country to meet and photograph the 12 wonderful Veterans and their service dogs that will be the subjects for our 2014 Calendar “Rescued Heroes- Veterans Edition“.  In late December we tried to think of a way to make a positive difference for a Minnesota  veteran with PTSD with our current 2013 “Rescued Heroes” calendar.  Long story short, we found an eager partner with Mike Frattallone and their  18 Frattallone Hardware stores in the Twin City metro area.  We donated 1000 calendars to their 18 stores and with their help, all were sold at $15.00 each on their front counters reaching our goal of $15,000 for a service dog for a Minnesota  veteran.  All funds raised went into the “Fitz Fund,” named in honor of our calendar cover dog, the service dog to Tony, a Minnesota Veteran of Iraq.   K9s For Warriors in Florida will be selecting and training our Veteran from the applications they received from Minnesota veterans with PTSD.

(from left) Me, Dave Haugland (our printer), Tony and Fitz, and Mike Frattellone (the wonderful owner of Frattellone’s Hardward)

We want to thank the wonderful media  help we got throughout the month.   It started with a great column by Gail Rosenblum of the Minneapolis Star Tribune (read it here) and mention by Mary Rosko of Fox News-both on December 6th, the day the fundraiser began.  The Minnesota Beyond the Yellow Ribbon groups, American Legions, and VFW’s all helped spread the word along with TV stations, KARE 11 and KSTP, who mentioned us in their broadcasts.  We even had a nice feature spot on the Good News Page of the Huffington Post (read the story here), thanks to Hayley Hudson of their editorial team.

At the left is a picture taken at Frattallone Hardware in St. Paul when Mike Frattallone presented the check to Tony.  In the picture left to right is Paul Sansale, artist, Dave Haugland, Tony, Fitz and Mike Frattallone.

We would like to give a BIG thank you to our wonderful partner in this endevour, Mike Frattellone, who helped give us a way to reach our goal of helping a Vet with PTSD from our home state of Minnesota get a service dog. It would have been impossible without his support and generosity! Also, we want to give a very special thanks to Dave Haugland, owner of Impressive Prints in St. Paul whose generosity has allowed us to put “Made In The USA” on our calendar next to the flag.

Next year we have even better bigger goals – let’s see what we can all do together to allow more service dogs to come to the rescue of the over 14,000 Minnesota veterans who are dealing with PTSD every day!  Stay tuned and thanks to everyone for supporting what we do!

Me and Fitz, our wonderful cover service dog!