A young child took it upon himself to ask for a lemonade stand for his birthday so he could help out a charity. Since he likes animals, he heard about Canine Companions for Independence and decided to check the place out. He visited the Northeast Region office of Canine Companions for Independence and as he walked in, he saw pictures on the wall with the smiles on the kids and adults faces that were in wheelchairs sitting next to dogs that helped them. He decided that this was the charity for him. After setting an ambitious goal of $20,000 for someone so young, he started out that day, keeping a journal of all he raised. He has taken his stand to pet stores and parades and talked to clubs and organizations with his lemonade stand giving out bookmarks and answering questions as much as he can. He has never kept a single penny, he has given all he has received to help out this charity he so believes in. To date, he has met and surpassed his initial goal which was to raise $20,000. When asked if he is going to stop he said no and is decided he wants to try and help to raise $10,000 more.  Thinking of other ideas to help with his lemonade stand, he decided to have a charity auction and ask for items from "people who are famous" to help him out. He dictated individual letters to each person; some he even got to meet and ask personally, explaining about his charity and the auction. 100% of the proceeds of the items donated were sent directly to the non profit organization Canine Companions for Independence auctioned through E-bay’s  charity site. His idea last summer was to get dog collars, and have celebrities sign them. Through Animal Radio and the gracious donation from Bamboo Pet with 100 of their patented dog collars, he  auctioned the items, each collar signed by a celebrity, on E-Bays charity site, Giving works, listed for Canine Companions for Independence.  This summer, he has a special celebrity signed dog collar which he got hand signed personally and being auctioned this August on ebays charity site under member klemonade33.   This year, starting in August 2008, Kyle's newest idea is called Cooks Who Care. Kyle is asking resteraunts to dedicate on night and donate a percentage of it's proceeds to CCI.  Kyle is going to post which resteraunts are participating and keep a calendar for people to see and hopefully dine out at as well. He may even be at some himself with bookmarks about CCI.  To date, Kyle has help raise over $33,000! He hopes to reach a new goal, but his ultimate goal is to make more people aware of Canine Companions for Independence.

Canine Companions for Independence is a national nonprofit that enhances the lives of people with disabilities by providing highly-trained assistance dogs and ongoing support to ensure quality partnerships.

For more information, click on one of the sites on the right

Assorted collars were donated d by Bamboo Pet for Kyle's charity auction and were signed by celebrities and auctioned on the charity site givingworks- 1oo% of the proceeds were given to CCI