Lions do good with Purple Heart Pups

What started with one exceptional dog has grown into an effort uniting veterans, a community and a group of caring canines.

Purple Heart Pups, a fundraiser established by the Merrick Lions Foundation to benefit America's VetDogs and the National Amputation Foundation, recently reached its one-year anniversary this past summer. The effort to raise money, which will go toward training dogs to provide assistance, independence and companionship to injured vets returning stateside, culminated in a Family Festival and 3K Walk this past Sunday at the Four Towns Firefighters Training Center in Merrick, the largest fundraising event of this initiative.

More than a hundred walkers took part in the event, which raised $10,000, said Merokean Lisa Siano, founder of Purple Heart Pups. "It was our first effort, and we are still a work in progress," Siano said. "But the people who came had a wonderful time."

After the walk, participants enjoyed a festival while being entertained with music from local bands such as Red, White and Blues and Still in Style, as well as 13-year-old singer Lexxi Saal. Also included were games and rides for children, and food provided by Guy Anthony's restaurant in Merrick and gelatos from the International Cafe in Bellmore.

"It was really just a terrific event," Siano said. But one year ago, during the summer of 2009, Purple Heart Pups was just a nameless idea inspired by a mutt named Raleigh.

Raleigh, who is part golden retriever, was introduced to Siano by her sister, Toni Pincus, a dog walker and school nurse in Freeport who learned firsthand that dogs are more than a human's best friend through a program that brought students and puppies together for educational purposes.

Raleigh, Pincus's first puppy, was in training to be a guide dog for the blind. After his training, Siano and Pincus said they were surprised to learn that Raleigh was assigned as a therapy dog at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

"We found out what Raleigh was doing through one of the trainers," Siano said. "You couldn’t fail to be moved by the things that this woman described.