Summit Assistance Dogs in Anacortes would like to expand its program and residents of North Whidbey Island can lend a hand.

The nonprofit company, which trains hearing and mobility assistance dogs for people with disabilities, is one of 36 candidates vying to get the most votes in Walton Beverage’s local Pepsi Refresh Project. The nonprofit that gets the most votes will receive a $10,000 grant from the beverage distributor to fund a startup project.

Summit would use the money to fund its newest program, which currently has the working title “Serving Our Soldiers,” or S.O.S., which would provide service dogs for wounded soldiers or those suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“We want to use that money to kick off S.O.S. marketing and outreach,” said Erik Mann, development associate with Summit Assistance Dogs. “It would also help us to create screening guidelines, establish policy and procedure for training the dogs and acquire breeding stock and dogs to start training.”

“The local Pepsi Refresh Project is our take on the national project, and is our way of rewarding and giving back to nonprofits in our area who are really coming up with innovative and refreshing ideas,” said Kaitlin Isle, marketing and special projects coordinator with Walton Beverage. “Nonprofits are really working hard to generate innovative ideas that are pushing our communities ahead and creating important programs. It’s great to hear the things they would do if they had extra funding.”

Summit was founded in 2000 by Sue Meinzinger. The nonprofit organization does not charge for its dogs and relies solely on grants, fundraising and private contributions. Puppy raisers volunteer to take the puppies into their homes when they are about 8 weeks old and work with them for up to a year and a half, bringing them to Summit’s headquarters on Christianson Road in Anacortes regularly to work with professional trainers. The training process takes about two years, at which point the dogs are carefully matched with applicants.

Meinzinger said the emerging need for service dogs for veterans with PTSD is huge.

“There is a big enough need that the Veterans Administration has a three-year study being conducted to study what the effects of service dogs are on veterans with PTSD,” she said. “If they determine they are valuable, they could possibly start making funding available.”

Much of the training for the S.O.S. dogs is the same as its training for other service dogs, Meinzinger said. There are currently about 40 dogs in the program. Summit graduates about eight to ten dogs each year.

“Our graduation rate currently is about one in four, meaning that for every four dogs in the training program, only one will successfully complete it,” said Mann. “Our standards are strict and we’re looking for special dogs.”

the training, therefore making more dogs available.

“We’re trying to fill a niche. A returning soldier would have the strength to handle a dog that might be too much for someone with a balance issue to handle,” said Mann.

“One of the things people with PTSD often suffer with is hyper-vigilance and the anxiety that can go with it about being with a crowd,” explained Meinzinger. “If the veteran needed more space and was becoming anxious, for instance, they could cue the dog to take a position that would give them an automatic barrier.

“What they have found is that people with PTSD tend to want to stay home, and the dogs seem to help mitigate that problem,” Meinzinger continued. “People are getting out more because they feel less anxiety because of the service dog.”

The waiting list for a dog from Summit currently has about 30 applicants. Mann estimates the typical wait is between two and four years, but that can fluctuate greatly, depending on the specific needs of the applicant.

Shortening that wait would require increasing the number of dogs going in the program. That may seem like an easy thing, but because Summit relies on volunteers who are willing to devote time to daily training and weekly sessions at Summit, the shortage is not in the number of available dogs.

“We have plenty of dogs, but nowhere to put them,” Mann said. “Our biggest limitation is having enough homes willing to take them.”

Voting in the local Pepsi Refresh Project will continue through Sept. 5. The winner will be announced on Sept. 8. Anyone interested in voting for Summit Assistance Dogs may go to www.waltonbeverage.com/content/walton_community/local_voting.asp to register. You are allowed to cast one vote per day.

In addition, you can save your receipts for any Pepsi products purchased in Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan and north Island County (from Coupeville north), and turn them in to help in the voting. Every dollar spent is equal to a vote.

“If you have $150 in receipts, then that’s 150 votes,” said Isle.

This is the second year Walton Beverage has conducted the contest, and Isle said it is the only Pepsi distributor in the country doing a local Pepsi Refresh Project.

“We’re really excited about it,” she said. “$10,000 can go a long way.”

It’s estimated it will take about a year to get the S.O.S. program up and running, so both Meinzinger and Mann say the sooner they can get started, the better. The exposure the organization gets from participating in contests like this helps build awareness, which in turn can help when it comes to raising money.

“Whether we win the grant or not, we will be starting the program,” Meinzinger said.

“We don’t ever want to have to charge for our dogs. That’s one of the things that sets us apart,” Mann said. “We’re not in this to make money, we’re in this to serve people.”

How to Vote:

To vote for Summit Assistance Dogs, go to www.waltonbeverage.com/content/walton_community/local_voting.asp to register. You may cast one vote per day.

Receipts for Pepsi products purchased in Northern Island, Skagit, Whatcom and San Juan counties must be turned in by Aug. 29.

They can be dropped off at the Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce on Highway 20 or at Go Realty on Pioneer Way in downtown Oak Harbor. Receipts from restaurants who serve Pepsi products can also be included.

Often dogs that aren’t selected to complete the program are simply too energetic or too active for their handlers. That is something that wouldn’t necessarily be a problem for a veteran with no physical disabilities, opening the door for more dogs to complete