Dita's Donation Drive
Posted by Chris Chandler on
One of our missions at Sodapup is to give back. One, it just feels good. But even better? We get to connect and partner with amazing people. Like Justin Melnick and his Belgian Malinois dog, Dita, and Nikki Rohrig at Military Working Dogs Team Support Association (MWDTSA).
Justin is a former K9 cop turned actor and stars in the TV show SEAL Team on CBS (Wednesdays 9/8 Central). He also works to raise awareness about K9 working dogs. MWDTSA is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) organization that was established to support American Military Working Dogs and their handlers. “The purposes driving MWDTSA are as varied as the roles played by Military Working Dog Teams. MWDTSA supports dog teams currently deployed in harm’s way, promotes veteran dog handler causes and events, advocates for retired military working dogs (MWD), educates the public and raises funds for War Dog Memorials, among other MWD related objectives.” (https://www.mwdtsa.org/)
Earlier this month, Justin reached out to us with the idea of sending each current military working dog a holiday present, a toy from our USA K9 line, a group of toys Sodapup has designed specifically with K9 handlers and their dogs in mind. These toys are durable and sized to fit in a large pocket so they can easily be carried for use as a reward toy in training. (Oh yea—and they’re cool!)
Via MWDTSA’s website, we offered a 2 for 1 match. The offer was for people to purchase one toy to be donated. For each toy purchased as a donation, Sodapup donated two more toys. Then MWDTSA took on the task of getting the toys distributed to dogs and their handlers.
The response was stunning. In less than 24 hours, 900 toys were purchased with many people donating more than one toy. Add our 1800 toy match and we were able to send 2700 toys! We’re grateful to this community—the dogs, their handlers, those of you who donated, Justin and MWDTSA—for their dedication, passion and generosity. The world is not an easy place these days. It’s efforts like these that show us the goodness of people and give us faith that one person—and dog!—at a time, we can make the world a better place.
More Love 2020.
#morelove2020 #usak9 #sodapup #mwdtsa #jasonmelnick #sealteam #dita #ditathehairmissile