A 9-year-old Wesley Chapel girl has been on a mission to raise money for the Pasco County Sheriff’s K9 unit.
- 9-year-old girl continues to raise money for Pasco K9s
- Sophia Contino raised $2,500 in 2015 with her lemonade stand
- Money was used to buy vests for Pasco's K9s
- Sophia has raised $7K since then and plans to raise $10K more
Sophia Contino, 9, started raising money in December 2015 with her lemonade stand. She was able to raise $2,500. Soon after, more donations started flooding in.
The Pasco Sheriff’s Office was able to purchase vests for all its K9s.
Friday, Sophia was able to admire her hard work when she visited K9 Shep and his handler Deputy Nick Carmack, who handed her one of the new bullet proof vests she helped buy.
“I’m very proud,” she said. “You should be, you worked hard,” Deputy Carmack told Sophia.
Since 2015, Sophia’s entrepreneurial spirit has gotten the best of her.
“I’m raising money for something new now. They need a new training facility for the K9s,” Sophia said.
The new training facility will be part of the Florida Forensic Institute for Research, Security, and Tactical training in Land O’ Lakes, which is also home to the only body farm in the state.
“She’s an inspiration to all of us. She has an obviously much larger family now, since she jumped on the sheriff’s office K9 unit sponsor team. She definitely inspires all of us,” Lt. Joe Irizarry said.
As of Friday, Sophia has raised over $7,000. She said she does it because she loves dogs.
“I get really excited when I meet them, because I never met one before, and now I’ve met almost all of them,” Sophia said.
Sophia’s new goal is to raise an additional $10,000.