Firehouse Subs Hero Cups: K9s for Warriors
The next time you get a drink from Firehouse Subs, you may notice a friendly canine smiling back at you.
By Reana Baltic, HeroFuel Reporter
Firehouse Subs Hero Cups serve to celebrate both two-legged and four-legged heroes who keep our communities safe. The cups also showcase different types of life-saving equipment donated to first responders through Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by the same two brothers and former firefighters who started Firehouse Subs.
Each restaurant recycles leftover, 5-gallon pickle buckets, available to Firehouse Subs guests for a $2 donation to the Foundation. Donation canisters on register counters explain the nonprofit’s mission and collect spare change, while the Round Up program allows guests to “round up” their bill to the nearest dollar.
To date, Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation has given more than $18 million in life-saving equipment and resources to hometown heroes and public safety organizations in 45 states and Puerto Rico.
K9s For Warriors is yet another organization that Firehouse Subs Hero Cups is proud to recognize.
K9s For Warriors is a Jacksonville-based nonprofit that trains and donates service dogs to American veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other traumatic brain injuries. The goal is to empower suffering warriors and to help them return to civilian life with dignity and independence.
Shari Duval, founder of K9s For Warriors, was seeking a way for her son Brett Simon to cope with PTSD after returning from two tours in Iraq where Simon was an independent bomb-dog handler. Simon, who now serves as the director of K9 operations for the nonprofit, also spent almost 16 years as a police officer and 12 years in a K9 unit training dogs.
“The training of the dogs came naturally to me, and when my mom saw the issues I was having, she started researching ways that she could help me out. She came across articles about PTSD and service dogs and put two and two together,” said Simon.
In 2014, K9s For Warriors received a $25,000 Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation grant to support the construction of a new service dog training campus in Nocatee, Fla. According to Simon, the grant has significantly helped K9s For Warriors with their mission.
“Part of the money donated from Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation went to the purchase of a new vehicle to transport the service dogs and the warriors. As we grow, we have to have more dogs, and more dogs mean more vehicles to go out and train,” said Simon. “All donated funds come back to directly help the veterans with their equipment and education during their duration at K9s For Warriors.”
K9s For Warriors is the only service dog organization for post-9/11 veterans that requires them to live and train on-site with their service dogs before going home. K9s For Warriors’ unique program offers 120 hours of hands-on training with certified dog trainers, housing, meals, veterinary care, training equipment, and peer-to-peer support at no cost to the veteran.
K9s For Warriors also provides a tangible tool for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other traumatic brain injuries. “I think that’s the big difference with K9s For Warriors — the service animal is with them until the life of the service animal is done,” says Simon. The dogs are trained to carry out tasks that will decrease the effects of PTSD and other traumatic brain injuries.
The K9s For Warriors campus includes a 17,000-square-foot headquarters with a full kitchen, lounges, offices and dining hall. Currently, K9s For Warriors accommodates eight warriors per month.
The nonprofit is hoping to be able to accommodate 12 warriors at a time by 2017.
“Going from where we were with a three bedroom house to this facility now in just five years is outstanding. It just goes to show how much respect and love our people have for veterans because we take all pride in donations and we don’t take any government money,” stated Simon. “That’s what kept us afloat. The community doing things like what Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation has done for us.”
Get to know more about K9s For Warriors and Brett Simon in the Q&A below:
How did you get other people involved with the training of the dogs?
Brett Simon: We started off with just my mom Sheri Duval, my brother-in-law and myself.
North Wilderness Trail was our very first location. We had hardly any money and we had no dogs, but we had an idea.
Once we got going, we found the dogs and found the people, then it steamrolled from there. The community picked it up, and we had a lot of volunteers that were spreading the word. Some organizations helped us to stay afloat and we kept going.
People heard about the organization, and they wanted to help out. Some of those who wanted to help became employees because they were so good at what they were doing. It’s been a snowball effect since then.
How is K9s For Warriors different from other veteran related nonprofits?
Brett Simon: We provide a tangible service.
When veterans leave here, they’re not just leaving here from a PTSD retreat or a camp, they actually leave here with a tool that can help their disabilities — the tool being that service dog.
Having that service dog with you all the time is a lifelong thing.
A lot of times the retreats, especially the family ones, are great because the families can see what the veterans went through when they were deployed. They can talk to other families because to them it seems like they might be the only ones suffering through it, but they really aren’t — there’s thousands suffering. Once they’re gone from these retreats however, you take the tools and skills that you learned in the class or you read in a book and you still have to practice those tools and skills and as life gets in the way, some of those skills begin to slide.
When you have a service dog that’s with you all the time, it’s a constant thing that is there and they are never going away.
The camaraderie we build here is another aspect that sets us apart as well –we try to do it as a team building thing.
For example, the six guys this month are built into a unit, and we allow them to make their own friendships and do things, but we also have a structure for them that relates to what they did in the past in the military.
They have a structure in relation to what time they have to be up and when they have to be gone. We try to build that repetition back again because that repetition is what they know best.
Overall, it’s a win-win. We use shelter dogs who become service animals so they’re no longer in the shelter. We also build a team so that the veterans have another support system besides their families and friends at home — they’ve met new guys that have experienced the same thing.
What does a typical day for a warrior and a dog at K9s For Warriors look like?
Brett Simon: They have to be ready to leave by 9:30 a.m. We have certain training locations already picked out where they have a routine that consists of a walk of a half a mile up to a mile, and then we have a structured day for the rest of the day. They’ll do a walk, they’ll do obedience, take a break, do more obedience, go to lunch, etc.
It’s a system and once they get to learn it, it helps with the anxiety too because now they’re back into a structured environment that lets them know where they’re going to be and when they’re going to be there.
How long does the bond between the dog and the warrior take to form?
Brett Simon: I’ve seen it happen within 48 hours, and I’ve seen it happen within two weeks.
A lot of it has to do with the dog.
Usually with shelter animals, we don’t know what their history is so if they were mistreated or abused, they might not be as trusting, and it takes time to build that trust. There are those other dogs, however, that love unconditionally no matter what has been done to them. Ultimately, the dog has to learn to trust.
Are there any particular success stories that directly affect you other than your own?
Brett Simon: I think the biggest thing for me is watching guys that have gone into battle that are very confident, but over time their confidence gets beat down and then they come home and the change of environment is hard for them. It’s hard for a family to understand why mom or dad is acting a certain way.
Getting to know them, knowing them while they’re here and watching their transformation is wonderful.
I think another big thing for me is getting letters back from the families, husbands and wives. Or kids calling us or writing us a letter saying “thank you for giving mom or dad back,” or “thank you for allowing us to see our dad,” because for a lot of them, isolation is a big problem.
Watching the transformation, watching them do things with their families again and watching them all get back into life is my favorite part of K9s For Warriors.
Are the service dogs able to go anywhere?
Brett Simon: There’s only certain areas they cannot go in, which include clean room environments such as hospitals or any private institutions.
Dogs might also be limited to regions where someone might have a severe allergy.
K9s For Warriors also provides all veterans legal classes. They have about eight hours worth of lecture time while they’re here where we go over state and federal laws and health laws. They get a well-rounded education about the service dogs during their stay.
What are the main obstacles inhibiting the fulfillment of your mission?
Brett Simon: It’s always going to be money since we’re a nonprofit.
The sooner we can build a second kennel, the sooner we can get more dogs, and once we get more dogs we can open more living facilities. Along that comes the cost of feeding the dogs and taking care of the dogs.
Another obstacle is getting people here.
We’re on an 18 month wait list for warriors to enter our program. That 18 month wait list is a long time. We want to shorten that so people are only waiting six to eight months to get here.
Other obstacles — I really don’t see a lot. As long as we can keep pushing forward and do what we do, we can conquer just about anything.
For more information, visit k9sforwarriors.org and firehousesubs.com.
See the full line of Hero Cups by visiting any Firehouse Subs restaurant.
