Rachel Seymour-Newton finds her gifts in love dogs bring

Rachel Seymour-Newton finds her gifts in love dogs bring
Rachel Seymour-Newton finds her gifts in love dogs bring
Rachel Seymour-Newton poses with a canine friend.

Most children can’t wait until their birthday because they want a birthday party with lots and lots of presents. Not Rachel Seymour- Newton.

When she was about to turn 9, she told her mom she wanted her party to be used to raise money to save dogs.

“I heard about a lot of dogs being abused and I wanted to help,” Seymour-Newton said.

Since then, all of her birthday parties have focused on raising money for Friends Forever Rescue. Friends and family are asked to donate dog food or money instead of giving Rachel presents.

At one of those parties, the Seymour-Newton family brought in puppies for the children to play with and the guests left with photos of themselves playing with the puppies. At another, guests were told to bring their family pet and, for a $30 donation, mom Jaime Seymour-Newton, who is a photographer, would take portraits of the pooch.

The parties have raised several thousand dollars. Party guests also have donated many, many bags of food to feed the rescued dogs.

Rachel is turning 13 on Sept. 11 and she and her mom are working on the biggest fundraiser yet.

“We’re going to try to do something really big,” Jaime Seymour-Newton said. “We’re having some of her friends and her parents come to this meeting and make it big and make it different.” They have a meeting scheduled with Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner to talk about where the event should be held.

At the same time, Rachel Seymour- Newton is working on the service project that is part of the Jewish tradition when a girl has her bat mitzvah. (Boys have a bar mitzvah.)

“I’m going to do something with the dogs as well,” she said.

Rachel Seymour-Newton hasn’t been satisfied with just raising money. She also has taken in dogs (and helped train them). The dogs eventually are adopted by other families.

“We’ve fostered 20 dogs in the past few years,” Jaime Seymour-Newton said. “We do one or two at a time. It’s a gift for us as well. I’ve learned a lot from my daughter. It’s been very rewarding for us as a family and for the dogs.”

In a twist of roles, Rachel has been teaching her mom how to let go of the foster puppies when they are adopted.

“My mom gets attached,” Rachel said. “We all have to let them go. We can’t keep every dog.”

They usually foster puppies because the family pooch doesn’t like bigger dogs invading his home.

“We have had one dog since August, Billy the Kidd; he’s the biggest mush ball,” Rachel said. “We think he’s a lab rottie mix. His brother looks like a rottie, and he looks like a lab.”

She especially is concerned about the puppy because he is a black lab.

“People don’t like to adopt the black dogs because they think they are scarier and meaner,” Rachel Seymour-Newton said.

One of the reasons she loves to help out at the shelter is because of the love and affection she gets from the dogs. She said they will give that same love and affection to the family that adopts them.

“Most of the dogs at the shelter, they are used to being abused and they’ll try to please you,” she said. “They were abused so they try to be nice.”

Rachel Seymour-Newton also has started the Friends Forever Dog Club. Members volunteer at the Friends Forever shelter to get the dogs ready for their showings at Pet Smart at SW 136th Street and S. Dixie Highway.

For information, go online to www.friendsforeverevents.com/landing


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