A special blog post
from co-founder, Marianne Carlson.
A few years ago, I published a book about cause marketing
called Ten-Fold Marketing: Growing Your
Business by Growing Your Heart.
(The book includes a foreword by Tory Johnson from Good Morning America, and is available on Amazon.) Today, I want to tell you about the
cause that we have embraced as our corporate charity, and a little bit about
why this cause is so very dear to me, and to my business partner, Paula, who
happens to also be my daughter.
In 2003, I was working in Germany as a civilian employee of
the US Army, when the war in Iraq began.
In July of that year, I was deployed, and I spent the next six months
there.
It was the most horrible,
frightening, miserable, degrading, physically challenging, emotionally draining
experience of my life.
And in some
ways, it was the most wonderful thing I’ve ever experienced.
During those horrific months, I came to
have a deep and enduring love for the men and women who serve in our nation’s
armed forces… men and women for whom “Duty, Honor and Country” are not just
words.
If you know me, you know
they are never far from my mind.
In 2004, I returned to America, and that Christmas, I saw my
son for the last time. In March of
2005, he committed suicide. Words can’t
describe the agony that surged through our family, and the pain that continues
to live in the hearts of all who loved him.
In 2013, my daughter, Paula, and I began Bewaggle Pet
Services – a brand new kind of Pet Sitting company, and we began the search for
a cause that we could embrace as our corporate charity – the focus of our
Ten-Fold Marketing campaign. We
looked at animal shelters, dog food banks, humane societies and more. Then during our research, I learned
that more of America’s military heroes have died from suicide than have died in
combat, and that the most susceptible are those veterans who suffer from PTSD –
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. That fact struck me in a very personal, very profound way,
and we expanded our search to include veterans’ charities and suicide
prevention services.
After a lot of research and soul-searching, we decided on
one charity that met our search criteria perfectly. K9s for Warriors is a 501c3 that rescues dogs from shelters,
then trains those dogs to rescue veterans with PTSD. They are supported, in part, by some larger charities,
including the Wounded Warrior Project, and over 94% of their revenues go
directly to helping dogs and veterans.
And most importantly, the program works, which comes as no surprise to
anyone who has known the love and support of a faithful dog, or seen a good
service dog at work.
I invite you to visit their website and see the photos of
their graduates, to see the good they are doing for both dogs and veterans, and
to join us in supporting this wonderful organization.
For the dogs, for the veterans, and for the families who
love them, no one is more deserving of this “new leash on life”.
www.k9sforwarriors.org
About Bewaggle:
Bewaggle is a pet services
company located in DeLand, Florida. We offer pet sitting, dog walking, puppy
training, basic obedience training, and more, in the convenience of the
customer's home. Every
Bewaggle employee is bonded, insured, professionally trained and has undergone
a background check. Be wise...
Bewaggle!
