LEO's daughter needs help.

[Turin]

http://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20...e-on-alert-dog


By time Sophia Helme received her world-rocking Type 1 diabetes diagnosis at age 11, her blood sugar levels had spiked so high, the pediatrician’s first recommendation was an order: Get to the hospital. Now. “I asked if I could go by my house first and pick up my things,” she recalls. “He said no.”

“I was with her and I don’t know how I drove, I honestly don’t,” adds mom Andrea. “I had no idea what we were dealing with.”

“Floored” — that’s how dad, John Helme, described the impact of the news. The Navy veteran had defended his community for most of his adult life as a Sarasota County Sheriff’s deputy, with a couple of broken necks, a couple of broken knees, and even a bitten hand (human culprit, not canine) to show for it. But now, suddenly, he was helpless to protect his oldest daughter from a thing he couldn’t see or understand.

That was seven years ago. The family, which now includes Sophia’s 12-year-old sister Gianna and a pint-sized 6-pound rescue dog named Lucy, has learned to roll with the new reality — the needles, the calculations for blood sugar, or glucose, the insulin doses, the digital monitors, the dietary adjustments, the close calls. Seven years of clockwork mindfulness continues to rouse mom and dad in the middle of the night, drawing them to Sophia’s room, sometimes tag-teaming, to make sure their sleeping daughter’s volatile glucose readings are stable.

Today, at 18, the Sarasota Military Academy Class of 2017 graduate is ready to take the biggest step of her life. She wants to go to college and live independently. Sort of. Sophia will need help. From a four-legged creature that can detect glucose fluctuations between regular testing intervals and warn her to take insulin before a crisis occurs.

And no, it can’t be Lucy.

It will take a dog with up to two years of specialized schooling, and the Helmes are pinning their hopes on a remarkable program in North Carolina called Eyes Ears Nose & Paws. Acquiring a dog with a $20,000 skill set, plus an additional $5,000 in personal training and travel expenses, isn’t cheap. And that’s why the family has reluctantly agreed to become the beneficiaries of a “Cornhole for Heroes” fundraiser at Sarasota’s White Buffalo Restaurant on Saturday at noon.

“I’ve worked alongside John for a long time and he has given his time, quietly, to veterans events all his life,” says fundraiser coordinator Kevin Kenney, a retired Sarasota Sheriff’s Office major and a board member of Operation Patriot Support — a local veterans’ charity. “I think it’s time we helped pay his family back.”

The Helmes are frequent volunteers for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s nonprofit fundraisers, which hope to develop a cure for 1.25 million Americans suffering from Type 1 diabetes. The genetic affliction is a debilitating autoimmune disorder caused by the pancreas’ inability to produce insulin, the hormone that dispatches glucose from the bloodstream to the body. Before insulin therapy, most Type 1 patients had abbreviated lifespans. Even so, 24/7 glucose monitoring is a life sentence.
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The first step on that journey begins with Saturday’s fundraiser, even though it puts the Helmes into a somewhat awkward predicament. “This is very humbling. People have been so kind to us,” says Andrea. “It’s hard for us to ask for help. But this is our daughter.”

[Unregistered]

Finally, A subject right for LEO Affairs. An LEO family that needs help.

Not a Troll, or maybe two, talking to themselves and bashing the Sheriff.

[Unregistered]

As you already know, Knight’s charity scam only gives 39 cents of every charitable dollar collected to the kids via the SHERIFF’S ACTIVITIES LEAGUE OF SARASOTA. Since 61% of all collected money is used to pay salaries, please don’t donate to that scam.

Instead…

In Sophia Helme’s case, if you want to bypass charities altogether, then please write a check payable to Deputy John Helme – and then his daughter will get 100% of the money.

Please send your check to:

Sarasota County Sheriff's Office
P.O. Box 4115
Sarasota, FL 34230-4115
ATTN: Dep. John Helme

Thank you for your generous donations.

(P.S. - Thank you Kevin for your hard work in coordinating donations)

[Unregistered]

As you already know, Knight’s charity scam only gives 39 cents of every charitable dollar collected to the kids via the SHERIFF’S ACTIVITIES LEAGUE OF SARASOTA. Since 61% of all collected money is used to pay salaries, please don’t donate to that scam.

What kind of a low-life POS would use a thread like this to attack the Sheriff?

Son, YOU are lower that pond scum. If you are a deputy, resign now because you have no place among real deputies.

[Unregistered]

As you already know, Knight’s charity scam only gives 39 cents of every charitable dollar collected to the kids via the SHERIFF’S ACTIVITIES LEAGUE OF SARASOTA. Since 61% of all collected money is used to pay salaries, please don’t donate to that scam.

Instead…

In Sophia Helme’s case, if you want to bypass charities altogether, then please write a check payable to Deputy John Helme – and then his daughter will get 100% of the money.

Please send your check to:

Sarasota County Sheriff's Office
P.O. Box 4115
Sarasota, FL 34230-4115
ATTN: Dep. John Helme

Thank you for your generous donations.

(P.S. - Thank you Kevin for your hard work in coordinating donations)

I support John Helme and Kevin Kenney is doing a noble thing by orchestrating money to help John's daughter. Kudos.

Respectfully,

"Train the Trainer"

[Unregistered]

Just donated to the Juvenile Diabetes charity bike ride a couple weeks back. When I retired from the service I donate a portion of my time to getting cancer patients to their chemo, it breaks my heart to see children with these ailments.

[T.K.]

A local veterans’ charity met its goal of raising $25,000 on Saturday to get Sophia Helme one step closer to take the biggest step of her life — going to college and living independently.

Helme, 18, received a Type 1 diabetes diagnosis at age 11 and needs the assistance of a diabetes alert dog before she goes off to study occupational therapy at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. The dog will help detect glucose fluctuations between regular testing intervals and warn her to take insulin before a crisis occurs.

That’s where Operation Patriot Support, a local nonprofit veterans’ charity came in. It made her the beneficiary of a “Cornhole for Heroes” fundraiser at Sarasota’s White Buffalo Restaurant on Saturday afternoon.


Last week the charity raised $10,000 at its “Evening of Heroes” event and $4,000 in private donations. The charity will front the rest of the funds after Saturday’s event.

“It’s heartwarming to to know that there are people out there who are willing to help. It’s really hard to put into words and establish how I feel right now,” Helme said.