{"id":179170,"date":"2026-04-29T11:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T11:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/179170\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T11:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T11:18:07","slug":"donations-to-get-service-dog-for-bangor-girl-caught-in-legal-limbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/179170\/","title":{"rendered":"Donations to get service dog for Bangor girl caught in legal limbo"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Bangor couple has reached a roadblock in a nearly five-year journey to get a service dog<\/a> to help detect their 7-year-old daughter Aria\u2019s nonconvulsive overnight seizures.<\/p>\n

After raising over $12,000 for a trained service dog through a nonprofit, the family was offered a donated untrained dog that could join them sooner, according to Aria\u2019s mother, Jess Wojciechowski. But, the nonprofit says the donors intended their money to be used for a service dog through its organization and it cannot redesignate the funds toward the new dog\u2019s training.<\/p>\n

Donors who reached out to the nonprofit to clarify their donor intent were given the option to have their donation returned to them. The family is fighting to redirect all the money, much of which was raised by Lehigh Valley donors.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery night that passes is another night that something could go wrong,\u201d Wojciechowski said. \u201cSo one more night sooner that we can get a dog into this house that is trained to alert us is the first that we will have a good night of rest. It will be the first night that we don\u2019t need to about worry if she\u2019s going to be there in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wojciechowski signed a contract in 2021 with 4 Paws for Ability, an Ohio nonprofit that places service dogs with children and veterans with disabilities, which would cover half the cost to breed, raise and train the dog. The family needed to raise $17,000 to be matched with a dog.<\/p>\n

When Wojciechowski inquired about using the donations for training the new dog, the nonprofit said the money was \u201cfunds restricted by donors towards the use of Aria\u2019s service dog at 4 Paws for Ability\u201d and could not be redesignated to other organizations or individuals, including parents.<\/p>\n

A statement from the nonprofit\u2019s senior development director said it intends to use charitable contributions in the way donors specified, \u201cwhich was the placement of a service dog through our reputable organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wojciechowski said when she signed the contract, \u201cthere wasn\u2019t much thought other than excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have this opportunity in front of you that could completely change your child\u2019s life, you tend to maybe not read the fine print as much as you probably should,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Once the fundraising goal is met through 4 Paws for Ability, it could take around two years to be placed with a service dog, according to the nonprofit\u2019s website. Wojciechowski estimates that the donated dog \u2014 which was offered by an old schoolmate turned dog breeder \u2014 should be ready to join the family in eight to 12 months and begin training, which could cost $6,000-$17,000.<\/p>\n

Some donors expressed frustration that their money was not being directly redirected to Wojciechowski\u2019s preferred avenue of getting a service dog.<\/p>\n

\u201cI donated that to them for this cause and the fact that they can\u2019t receive it is really frustrating,\u201d said Samantha Tinsman, a donor and family friend from Easton.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not what we all signed up for when we donated money,\u201d said Catherine Denzel, a donor from Bethlehem Township who is Wojciechowski\u2019s client. \u201cThere was a goal at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the impacted funds were donated through MightyCause, where Aria\u2019s campaign was directly in support of 4 Paws for Ability. It also included funds raised through a 2022 shoe drive that collected over 4,500 pairs of shoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was like a second full-time job for me to do,\u201d Wojciechowski said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a good day when the entire community can all come together and support one cause,\u201d said Kevin Branco, the owner of Main Street Gym in Hellertown, where a shoe collection box needed to be emptied every two or three days.<\/p>\n

Wojciechowski has filed complaints with \u201cthe appropriate charitable oversight offices in Pennsylvania and Ohio,\u201d according to state Sen. Lisa Boscola, who asked the Pennsylvania attorney general\u2019s office to fully review the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am hopeful this organization will do the right thing and work with Jess so the funds raised for Aria can be used as intended, to help her get the service dog she needs,\u201d Boscola wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n

When asked about the complaints, Jennifer Lutes, the nonprofit\u2019s executive director, said in an email that \u201cthe family is aware that 4 Paws for Ability is working individually with any donors who reach out to clarify the intent of their donation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a donor indicates they no longer wish for their contribution to support a service dog for Aria through 4 Paws for Ability, we are returning the donation directly to the donor so they can determine how they would like to proceed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Wojciechowski plans on moving forward with the donated dog, hoping to get a potentially life-saving dog into her home as soon as possible. The family has raised more than $9,000 on a SupportNow campaign<\/a>, which goes directly to Aria\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen too many stories that I don\u2019t want to be my own, of parents going into a bedroom and finding their child [dead], and it\u2019s terrible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this is the one thing that I can do and provide for her, that can stop that from happening and give her a life to live ahead,\u201d Wojciechowski continued. \u201cThen I\u2019m going to fight in every way that I could possibly can to get this for her as soon as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isabella Gaglione is a freelance writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Bangor couple has reached a roadblock in a nearly five-year journey to get a service dog to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,182,139,432],"class_list":["post-179170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}