Fidelco grant will help give guide dogs to military veterans

The Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, Inc. has announced that it has received a grant of $90,000 from Newman’s Own Foundation "in support of its mission to provide the highest quality German Shepherd Guide Dogs to U.S. military veterans."

Newman’s Own Foundation has since 1997 granted more than $250,000 to Fidelco, the organization said in a statement.

Fidelco most recently placed Guide Dog “Legend,” with Tech Sgt. Matthew Slaydon, USAF (ret.), the statement said.

"Slaydon was injured in Kirkuk, Iraq when a roadside bomb exploded as he attempted to disarm it. He suffered the loss of his sight, his left arm and traumatic brain injury," the statement said. "Fidelco’s staff and trainers worked with Slaydon so that he could use his prosthetic arm with his new guide dog. He then completed his In-community Placement with the help of a Fidelco placement specialist in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona."

“Thanks to the ongoing support of Newman’s Own Foundation, we will be able to support Sgt. Slaydon and other blinded American military heroes like him,” Eliot D. Russman, CEO and executive director of the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, Inc., said in the statement. “Their generosity gives us the capability to expand our outreach and client development efforts, and to provide Fidelco German Shepherd Guide Dogs to more injured military veterans than ever. Freedom and independence are certainly not free of costs and Newman's Own Foundation has clearly demonstrated this fact with its most recent financial support.”

Bob Forrester, president of Newman’s Own Foundation noted, also in the statement, that Fidelco is "committed to providing guide dogs to our brave military veterans who have lost their sight.”

“We are proud to support their efforts to improve the lives of America’s servicemen who have given so much for their country,” he said.

To carry on Paul Newman's philanthropic legacy, Newman’s Own Foundation donates net royalties and profits after taxes from the sale of Newman’s Own products to charity. To date, Paul Newman and Newman’s Own Foundation have given over $295 million to thousands of charities around the world, the statement said.

Fidelco, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Bloomfield, Conn., breeds, trains and places its own, unique type of German Shepherd Guide Dogs with people who have visual disabilities, the statement said.

Editor's note: The information in this post was provided wholly by Fidelco