Bulletproof Vests Donated To Somerset County Sheriff’s Office K9 Unit

SOMERSET COUNTY, NJ — Bulletproof vests for the Somerset County Sheriff Office's K9 Unit were donated by a variety of organizations, announced Somerset County Sheriff Darrin J. Russo.

Donations came from "Living For A Cause (LFAC)" for dogs, The Friends of Solo Foundation, James Wiater with George’s Towing; Tony Alfano, Nicole Alfano & James Nobile and Protecting K9 Heroes Stacey Goveia and Dimarcantonio family in the Sheriff’s Office K-9 Unit.

The donation will be presented on March 14 at 2 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Plaza located outside of the Sheriff’s Office. The donated bulletproof vests will be going to K-9 Caesar, K-9 Casanova, and K-9 Benning who work with the Sheriff’s Office K9 Unit.

"Donations like this go a long way in protecting all those that protect and serve. Our K-9 team is instrumental in protecting our officers and serving our public so keeping them safe is paramount. Thank you to all the companies, organizations and donors that make this possible," said Russo.

Living For A Cause (LFAC) is an organization that works to effect positive change in the world. Through donor contributions, grants, sponsors, and fund-raising alliances with various for-profit ventures, LFAC creates streams of revenue which are transparently channeled to charitable groups in the form of tangible items for programs that focus on people, animal welfare, the arts and planet conservation.

One such program is their K-9 Bullet Proof Vest Project which is dedicated to protecting NJ brave K9 dogs. Funding for this program was made possible by private donors and from a grant from the Doris Day Foundation. K-9 ballistic vests are both bulletproof and stab-proof. These vests are cut from the same Kevlar bulletproof cloth as their human partners, covering all the vital organs. Each body armor vest donated is custom manufactured to fit the specific body shape of each K-9.

The Friends of Solo Foundation and its founder James Wiater is dedicated to the protection of K9 officers by providing them with safety equipment such as Ballistic body armor, field trauma kits and oxygen kits. All essential for the health and safety of the K9’s who are asked to be our front line of protection every day. The Friends of Solo Foundation has donated over 50 pieces of safety equipment including 21 ballistic vests to K9’s across the United States. George’s Garage and Towing, located in Cranbury New Jersey, has generously covered the entire purchase of K9 Mac’s ballistic vest.

Protecting K9 Heroes and its founder Stacey Goveia has directly or cooperatively provided over 20 bulletproof vests to K9’s throughout the United States. As a longtime part of Law Enforcement community, the founder understands the constraints of agency budgets and the daunting task of obtaining and maintaining proper K-9 protection and works to supplement the ability to properly protect the valuable assets that are the working K9’s throughout the United States. Protecting K9 Heroes perpetuates the good health of working K9’s and promotes the opportunity for the working dog and their handler to come home safe after every shift.

For more information on the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office, visit their Facebook Page facebook.com/SomersetCountySheriffsOffice or download their Mobile APP “Somerset County Sheriff NJ” at the Google Play Store.