Make a dog toy. Donate. Help someone become independent.
Canine Companions For Independence
At age 12, a Jewish girl can have her bat mitzvah. This includes a special project that helps make a difference in our communities and across the world. I am so excited about my project and look forward to helping CCI.
What is CCI (Canine Companions for Independence)
CCI is an organization that gives people in need service dogs. Canine Companions offers service dogs to people with many different disabilities. CCI is the largest provider of service dogs in the world. CCI provides the dogs to those in need free of charge.
Who CCI helps
CCI provides service dogs for people with physical or developmental disabilities, adults who are deaf or hard of hearing, veterans with PTSD as well as professionals working in health care, visitation, educational or criminal justice settings who can demonstrate that an assistance dog will enhance their independence or their quality of life. These are all people qualified to apply.
Real-life story
Nu Ja was born with limb differences in her arms and legs, meaning they are either absent or incomplete. Nu Ja's family moved to California where they met someone with a service dog from CCI. They got information from CCI and soon after they applied for a dog. In September of 2018, Nu Ja was paired with Kristi and now she is able to be more independent and relies less on others to help her get things.
Nu Ja is just one of the hundreds of stories where CCI
companions have made a difference in a person's life.
Read more stories here
What this means to me
I chose this as my Bat Mitzvah project because over the past year, my family and I have been training a service dog for CCI. When I first heard that Miriam was going to get a service dog in training I was worried that it would be super hard to train her. Not that I'm saying it's easy or anything, but, it is a lot more fun than I expected. Indeara, the puppy we got from CCI has changed my life. Indi has made me laugh and smile whenever I was sad. I have learned to take more responsibility by walking Indi when she needs to go and making sure she is not mischevious.
By the time my Bat Mitzvah comes around Indi will be gone. She will be in professional training getting ready to hopefully become a service dog for someone in need. We will miss Indi so much but until that moment we are going to appreciate every moment we have with her.
My project is making dog toys to raise money for CCI. Why should you donate? Have you ever seen someone in a wheelchair, I bet you have. Have you ever met someone who has autism, I'm sure you have. Some people who are in a wheelchair, have other physical disabilities, veterans who have PTSD or children who have autism, aren't able to be totally independent. They could benefit from a CCI dog.
Your donation could help someone become independent. Buying a toy or just showing up you are helping out CCI and hopefully someone who is in need. CCI relies on donations because they give the dogs for free. So please donate and help people in need.
ONLY $10-15 for a toy that makes a difference
We will make you a customized dog toy in your color choice for only $10-15, but additional donations are always appreciated.
To learn more about buying a toy click here
How to Donate
If you would rather just donate instead of buying a toy here is a direct link to the donations page click here
Cookies
Buy a homemade batch of cookies for you or your pup.
To learn more about buying cookies click here
EVENTS
Come and join us and learn how to make your own dog toy that you can bring home or donate to Kira's Bat Mitzvah Project to sell and help raise money for CCI.
Events coming soon.
To learn more about different events click here
Many thanks to everyone who came to the first event Sunday, November 10th.
We hope to see even more people at the next one.