i've got a couple that are near and dear, james

one is the joyful child foundation in memory of samantha runnion, which is based in your neck of the woods: www.thejoyfulchild.org - the runnion/donnelly family have been close personal friends for many years and this is a terrific organization. this CA 501 (3) (c) was established by erin runnion and her husband, kenneth donnelly, within months of samantha's abduction and murder in 2002.

the other was founded by a fellow TOS'er named mary stadelbacher (whose poster name is easternshorelady) called shore service dogs, i believe, based in salisbury, MD.: www.shoreservicedogs.com is the link if i'm not mistaken (jo55 put it up in the our pets subforum for service dogs, so check there if this one doesn't work - located in the general part of the neurotalk board...). mary rescues abused and stray dogs and trains them to become service and emotional support dogs for the disabled. she recently was featured in the media for an interesting approach to fundraising, james... she has taught her dog, major, to paint with his mouth and his artwork fetches a pretty penny in donations for this worthy cause. maj even ended up on the tonight show in some kind of a paint-off vs. leno's kitty-cat. but it was totally rigged, i'm tellin' ya... cuz the kitty won!

then of course, if you have extra and would like to send some $$$ to MOI, well, ahem... we'll talk later, james... JK!!

alison