K9 HERO PORTRAIT PROJECT

Notes from the nonprofit

The K9 Hero Portrait Project was created in the Spring of 2013 after a week of sad events involving military and law enforcement K9's who were killed in action, injured or passed suddenly. Before completing our first portrait of MWD Gabe K153 SSD, the 2012 American Humane Association's Hero Dog of the Year, the founder, Loreen Pantaleone decided this was her way of giving back. Within hours of announcing on social media that "The K9 Hero Portrait Project" was being formed, five active and retired soldiers immediately contacted her to see if their military dog could be in the program. One soldier was in an undisclosed location in Afghanistan and was using his "family time" to contact Loreen and talk with her about his portrait, that's how much these K9's mean to these men and women. Since then, the nominations and queue for paintings of qualified K9's has grown to several years out and is in no way slowing down. The only way to continue the project, present these portraits in person and show our men and women of law enforcement, military and retired military, is by the donations and sales of the memorabilia items after a portrait is complete. Each person who has received a painting tells us of the impact, how at times, the "painting is the only thing keeping (them) here". As we heard this same story over and over from those who lost their K9 partner, we realized that more needed to be done to help these men and women when they retire, so they don't become another statistic in military or LEO suicide. We are expanding our reach by educating the public about these K9 heroes as well as the trauma inflicted that leaves the unseen scars: PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), and TBI (Traumatic Brain Injuries) and how service dogs can help those affected.