Southeastern Guide Dogs hold 3K walkathon

FORT MYERS, Fla.– It’s time to walk the dog with a new season of Southeastern Guide Dogs’ Walkathons. Walkathons are Southeastern Guide Dogs’ biggest fundraiser of the year and provide the opportunity for the community to help provide world-class guide dogs to the visually impaired.

All well-behaved dogs and their two-legged friends are invited!

Since 1987, Southeastern Guide Dogs has held a 3K Walkathon to raise funds for the guide dogs. The event has grown, and last year thousands of supporters and their dogs came out to Walkathons in Bradenton, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, Tampa, and The Villages. In 2015, Southeastern Guide Dogs is expanding their reach and footprint across Florida with the addition of Walkathons in Fort Myers

and Orlando. This year, all seven of the 2015 Walkathons are presented by Publix.

Why should the community participate? As one of the most respected guide dog schools in the United States and the only guide dog school in the Southeast, Southeastern Guide Dogs provides all of its dogs and services at no cost to recipients. Yet it costs over $60,000 to create and support a single guide dog team, including breeding, raising, and training the dogs; purchasing equipment; housing students for 26 days of in-residence training; and lifetime follow- up for the teams. Walkathon helps Southeastern Guide Dogs create these extraordinary dogs that transform the lives of the visually impaired.