This is for the person who felt the need to publicly voice their opinion in Witschey’s to an innocent bystander about the ATV ride scheduled for Trinity Martie. Since I have no way of knowing who they are, I thought this, my public opinion, will let them know who I am, when they could have discretely called the phone number on the flyer.

My name is Kathy Smith, and I’m the one who has been doing the fund-raising for the service dog. It took us a year to raise the required $13,000, which they ask families to do to raise public awareness. I had to keep record of all the events, sign-in sheets, who won door prizes, contact information, all receipts, and mail all this in to the organization. The ATV ride we have scheduled is to help raise the funds to bring her dog home (motel, gas, etc.), which is noted on the flyer. We have to travel four-and-a-half hours and stay 10 days for training and for Trinity to bond with this dog. I had to videotape her for months, daily routines, behaviors, so her dog can be trained especially for her.

I truly am sorry for the way you feel about this, but the simple solution would have been to call or just not participate in any way. If you would like to discuss this further, feel free to contact me directly, as long as there is no yelling or cussing!

I would just like to leave you with one final thought: When we get up in the mornings, we can decide, “Man I feel too tired to talk today . . . I don’t want to look both ways before crossing the street . . . I don’t feel like driving today . . . I don’t feel like going to work today . . .” All of these things we take for granted may never even be an option for this five-year-old girl with Autism that God has truly blessed my family with by allowing us to know.

Kathy Dennis Smith

New Martinsville