Story by Toni Milbourne
HEDGESVILLE — Cash Reid is just 10 years old and a fifth grader at Tomahawk Intermediate, but he has already developed a heart for giving.
The young man joined 4-H this year, deciding to raise a hog for his club project. In fact, Reid raised a hog and a spare. After showing one hog and selling that one through the Berkeley County Youth Fair, Reid decided he wanted to take any funds he could raise from the second hog and donate them to a charity.
“He made more money than he thought he would at the fair, and he said he didn’t want to be greedy,” shared Reid’s mother, Krystal. “So, I put the idea into his head about a charity.”
Cash was excited about the idea of giving to a charity and, according to his mom, wanted to pick one dealing with animals.
“Cash loves animals,” Krystal said. “His dad is a veteran, so we looked at service animals for veterans.”
Through their research, the Reids found Thin Line Service Dogs (TLSD), a local organization that trains golden retrievers for veterans and first responders. Founder Anjanette Montaño started the nonprofit to provide purpose-bred assistance dogs to first responders and veterans that have incurred life-changing injuries, including mental or physical disabilities, at no cost.
Based in Hedgesville, TLSD provides training in a variety of phases, including puppy starter, which is up to 10 weeks; recruit level, in months 3-7; and rookie level, in months 8-12. Some of the work involved centers on such aspects as scent training, confidence building, recognizing body language and stress indicators, such as elevated heart rate, and command training, including name response/check in, body handling and stair protocol.
Cash decided to raffle off his second hog and donate the funds he raised to TLSD. His efforts saw him raise $2,885. Tyson Deer Processing donated processing of the hog at no cost because of the charitable nature of the raffle.
“We were very touched by Cash’s generosity to first responders and veterans,” Montaño said. “It’s heartwarming to see a young fella have such a huge heart and give from his hard work of raising a hog to us. It’s beyond beautiful, and we are so grateful and touched.”
Training a service dog is a long and costly process. TLSD provides the service dogs to the veterans and first responders at no cost, so sponsorships and donations like this one are extremely important.
Krystal shared that Cash was very excited to be able to donate to TLSD and is already planning to donate to a charity again next year. His 4-H project on hogs expands over three years, so he has two more to go.
“He’s maybe looking at cows after that,” Krystal said, as she also explained that Cash had initially only had chickens.
He did begin early in his entrepreneurial endeavors by selling the eggs when he was just 5 years old. Moving to hogs and possibly then cows seems like a logical progression.
If a veteran or first responder is in need of a service dog, they can visit ThinLineSD.org for details and contact information. There is an application process through which an individual’s needs are evaluated so that they can be matched to the strength of the dog.