A 10-year-old boy has raised more than $315,000 to help provide police dogs with bulletproof vests. Brady Snakovsky from Strongsville, Ohio started raising money back in 2018 when he realized while watching a show called Live PD that while police officers are automatically protected with vests, their canine helpers aren’t offered the same resources.
GoFundMe
- Brady began raising money via GoFundMe. His first four vests, which went to dogs that work with the Ohio State Troopers, were purchased back in February 2018. Via GoFundMe alone, he’s raised a nearly $103,000 at the time of writing. That’s pretty impressive!
- However, he didn’t stop there. In addition to getting donations for the police dogs online, Brady Snakovksy started attending community events to raise awareness and money for police dogs and would spread the word to anyone he met. He also wrote a letter to his local congressman to get more attention for this important issue.
- Brady Snakovsky even set up Brady’s K9 Fund. A 10-year-old boy with his own nonprofit? Now that’s impressive. The organization not only raises money for bulletproof vests for police K9s but also for military dogs, which are also in need of protection. In total, he’s been able to get 257 vests provided for dogs and he’s raised over $315,000.
- His mom is so proud of him. “We were watching the show together and I didn’t even notice that the dog wasn’t wearing a vest,” Brady’s mom, Leah Tornabene, told CNN. “I was quite surprised that a child at age eight could recognize that there was an issue there and that he could find a solution to fix that problem. It made me very proud to see him doing this.”
- One day, Brady wants to be a police officer himself. Brady’s stepfather is a police officer and Brady also “want[s] to help out other people and keep people safe.” What a little hero!
If you’d like to donate to Brady’s cause, you can check out his GoFundMe page or his website.
Ohio State Highway Patrol
