K9s For Warriors, a not-for-profit organization that pairs
service dogs with military veterans suffering from PostTraumatic Stress Disorder, traumatic brain injury and/or
military sexual trauma, has a new headquarters located in the
St. Johns County community of Nocatee.
A grand opening celebration for Camp K9 was held April 30.
The new larger facility will quadruple the amount of veterans
the organization will be able to help.
Ponte Vedra resident, Shari Duval, founded K9s For Warriors
in 2011 after her son, Brett Simon, returned from two tours
in Iraq with PTSD. After watching her son suffer with the
disorder, Duval researched ways she could help him and found
that service dogs could help veterans like her son.
PTSD, is a medical disability and the main symptoms of it
are nightmares, flashbacks, depression, acrophobia. The dogs
will wake their warrior companions from nightmares and
immediately bring them out of that state. The dogs also serve
as a buffer for veterans suffering from PTSD who can be wary
about being approached. Additionally, the dogs are trained to
go ahead of the warriors around corners and that helps the
warriors feel at ease in public places.
“The dogs give the warriors the freedom to go out again,”
Duval said. “They tend to isolate; they tend to not go into
public and they avoid crowds. What they come here to do is
change their lives. Not one dog has been returned and not one
warrior has not had minimum to maximum results, and every
one of them would swear by our program. Our mission is to
return our