The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Three K-9s in the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office will receive donated bullet proof vests in a ceremony set for 2 p.m. March 14 at the Veterans Memorial Plaza, located outside of the Sheriff’s Office Headquarters in Somerville.
The donations are being made by “Living For A Cause (LFAC)” for dogs, The Friends of Solo Foundation, James Wiater with George’s Towing, Tony Alfano, Nicole Alfano and James Nobile and Protecting K9 Heroes Stacey Goveia and the Dimarcantonio family, according to a press release from the Sheriff’s Office.
The donated bullet proof vests will be going to K-9 Caesar, K-9 Casanova and K-9 Benning who work with the Sheriff’s Office K9 Unit.
“Donations like this go a long way in protecting all those that protect and serve,” Somerset County Sheriff Darren Russo said in the release. “Our K-9 team is instrumental in protecting our officers and serving our public so keeping them safe is paramount.”
“Thank you to all the companies, organizations and donors that make this possible,” Russo said in the release.
K-9 ballistic vests are both bulletproof and stab-proof, according to the release. These vests are cut from the same Kevlar bulletproof cloth as their human partners, covering all the vital organs. Each body armor vest donated is custom manufactured to fit the specific body shape of each K-9.
Living For A Cause (LFAC) is an organization that works to effect positive change in the world. Through donor contributions, grants, sponsors, and fund-raising alliances with various for-profit ventures, LFAC creates streams of revenue which are transparently channeled to charitable groups in the form of tangible items for programs that focus on people, animal welfare, the arts and planet conservation.
One such program is their K-9 Bullet Proof Vest Project, which is dedicated to protecting New Jersey’s brave K-9 dogs. Funding for this program was made possible by private donors and from a grant from the Doris Day Foundation.
The Friends of Solo Foundation and its founder James Wiater is dedicated to the protection of K-9 officers by providing them with safety equipment such as Ballistic body armor, field trauma kits and oxygen kits, all essential for the health and safety of the K9’s who are asked to be our front line of protection every day.
The Friends of Solo Foundation has donated more than 50 pieces of safety equipment, including 21 ballistic vests to K-9’s across the United States. George’s Garage and Towing, located in Cranbury, has generously covered the entire purchase of K-9 Mac’s ballistic vest.
Protecting K-9 Heroes and its founder Stacey Goveia has directly or cooperatively provided more than 20 bulletproof vests to K-9’s throughout the United States. As a longtime part of the Law Enforcement community, the founder understands the constraints of agency budgets and the daunting task of obtaining and maintaining proper K-9 protection and works to supplement the ability to properly protect the valuable assets that are the working K-9’s throughout the United States.
Protecting K-9 Heroes perpetuates the good health of working K-9’s and promotes the opportunity for the working dog and their handler to come home safe after every shift.
For more information on the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office please visit their Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/SomersetCountySheriffsOffice/ or download their Mobile APP “Somerset County Sheriff NJ” at the Google Play Store.
