The Aussie Pooch Mobile philosophy of ‘We Care’ not only relates to cleaning and caring for dogs, it is strongly tied to caring and helping the community, with Aussie Pooch Mobile operators throwing themselves relentlessly into helping out for charity.
Husband and wife team, Aussie Pooch Mobile franchisees, Mick and Karen Richardson from Browns Plains, Qld, recently took out a special high achievement fundraising award presented by Variety the Children’s Charity at the Variety Chefs Ball held last week which is the culinary and social event of the year for Variety, attended by over 500 people raising money for children in need.
The Variety Chefs Ball sees funds raised to help train ten assistant dogs for children in need; Ten Chefs, Ten Dogs, Ten Lives Forever Changed.
Due to Aussie Pooch Mobile with the support of Karen and Mick Richardson starting this successful campaign, Variety decided to use this as their focus for the ball where they raised over $345,000 last Saturday night.
Together, Karen and Mick Richardson have raised over $60,000 over the past few years. Their fundraising efforts have included pie drives, bowls days, sausage sizzles as well as attending and helping out at Aussie Pooch Mobile fundraising days. All for the great assistance dog cause.
Karen and Mick have also been further recognized by The Franchising Association of Australia by becoming a finalist in the Franchising community awards. These are being announced on July 18.
And it’s a passion that Chris Taylor, founder of Aussie Pooch Mobile says is the absolute essence of Aussie Pooch Mobile.
“I am so fortunate to be doing something I love, that I want to be able to give back to the community,” explains Karen. “Being involved in worthwhile causes, and helping others, is extremely humbling. It’s the Aussie Pooch philosophy and something I feel extremely proud to be a part of.”
A fully trained assistance dog on average cost $20,000 each to train, which is not cheap but well worth it.
Assistance dogs are trained to enhance the quality of life of physically or mentally challenged persons whilst still maintaining as much independence for the handler. This means that the dog will be a permanent working companion for the disabled handler and will assist with a myriad of task work but whilst still having the handler work and interact as much as physically or mentally possible.
Assistance dogs are trained to turn lights on and off, open and close doors, pick up and or retrieve dropped or wanted items, indicate when handler needs assistance either by alerting a carer or by pushing a medical alarm etc. We train each dog to the individual handler’s needs. There are basic tasks that are taught to each assistance dog but every handler will have different physical needs so there will be different individual tasks required for every handler.
The Richardson’s, recently fundraised the majority of the funds for 13 year old Jazmin Bromley and her dog Colin. See here Jazmin’s story on the Today Show and here a recent video we did with her
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