The Yang's Fund for Pawsitism, Inc.

Dear family, friends and supporters,

We have very exciting news to share! Schyler has been matched with a Pawsitism, Inc. service dog in training. We are beginning the training process to become a certified team and need your support.

As many of you know, Schyler has Autism Spectrum Disorder. Although he was medically diagnosed in November 2022, he was already educationally diagnosed when he was in Kindergarden in 2019. Schyler has continued to grow and develop in so many ways. He has an exceptional mind and remembers everything about anything he's interested in. He has exceptional hearing and can copy most sounds he hears to the exact tone and pitch. He hears, sees, tastes, smells, and feels so intensively. With that, he gets frustrated, overwhelmed, anxious and dysregulated so intensively. So much that, even after 5 years since being diagnosed, he is still working with amazing teachers, doctors, and therapists to help him learn ways to regulate his body enough to be able to do what is needed of him.

We are confident that this service dog will serve as one of his strongest tools to be able to help him thrive in this neurotypical world and will serve as a life-long companion.

This service dog will be able to help with the following:

- Provide DPT (deep pressure therapy) when needed to help regulate Schyler's body.

- Provide tethering where Schyler will wear a harness with a tether that clips to the service dog's vest. If he tries to wander or run off, the dog is trained to ground itself and use its weight to help hold him back.

- Provide a calming presence in environments where he can get easily overwhelmed such as places where there are a lot of people or sounds.

- Perform search and rescue where the dog would be able to quickly locate Schyler if he wanders off or runs away.

Things the service dog may be able to be trained on:

- When Schyler is having sensory overload or is very dysregulated, the dog will be trained to walk a circle around him (orbit) or lay close to him to create space to protect him and others if his body becomes unsafe.

- The dog will be trained to orbit or create space when Schyler walks in the hallways at school so other kids don't bump into him.

We are fortunate to have found Pawsitism, Inc., a nonprofit organization serving our area, that trains service dogs for autistic children. To help offset part of the expense of the dog's training, our family is committed to putting $6000 back into the program. This $6000 will help pay it forward to train the next dog that gets paired with another child. This will also verify our family's commitment to our new service dog and its continued training throughout the lifetime of the dog.

Even the smallest donation will help us reach our goal! Please feel free to share with anyone who may be able to help us on our journey and support Pawsitism, Inc.!

Our family thanks you from the bottom of our hearts for always being Schyler's strongest cheerleaders and being a part of his journey!

Please message me your name and address so that Schyler can send you a little thank you note.

Keep checking back for updates and share this beautiful journey with us!

If you would rather donate via Venmo or PayPal you can use the following:

Venmo: @kaabnie19

Paypal: @kaabnie19

Or message me to discuss other ways to donate.

You can also donate directly to Pawsitism, Inc. but make sure to note: "For Schyler and Luca"

https://pawsitism.org/sponsor-or-donate/

Or

Venmo: @pawsitism

Thank you,

Kang Vang