The Barstool Fund - Special Dogs & More
80,000 people have donated. Enough is never enough in this case. That’s amazing. Stoolies changing lives 1 dollar by 1 dollar.
Up next: Special Dogs & More (Columbus, Indiana)
Special Dogs & More is “changing lives one hot dog at a time.” Owners Randy and Robin Lapidus have one goal: Help the mentally and intellectually challenged get the opportunity to gain employment through on-the-job training.
Reader Email
To whoever reads this,
We are the Lapidus family. We own and operate Special Dogs & More in Columbus Indiana. We are not your typical restaurant.
Back in July of 2011 our daughter Rachel at 19 suffered Sudden Cardiac Arrest. She was perfectly healthy and all of a sudden her heart stopped. She was down for between 8-10 minutes and was in a coma for almost a month. The first 10 days on life support.
At the time the doctors said there would be no hope. The best thing we could do for Rachel was to put her in long term care. The doctors said that if she survived, she would most likely never walk or talk again due to the loss of oxygen.
Instead we fought for recovery and after fighting with doctors and the insurance company. We finally got approval for three days at a rehab hospital here in Indianapolis that specializes in brain injuries.
72 days later, Rachel walked out of that rehab on her own. We still had a long way to go but the Marathon towards recovery had started.
In 2013 we purchased a raised roof van and built an ice cream truck to drive around Columbus Indiana and not only be therapy for Rachel but the money raised would go towards her therapies.
Because of the ice cream truck, we were able to do multiple different therapies including Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and today you can have an intelligent conversation with Rachel. She still has a way to go and we do not give up.
In 2014, Rachel started Vocational Rehab. That is where they take her out into the working world and see what she can do. This was difficult to do as no one wanted to give someone with a brain injury a chance.
Upon further research we found out that over 80% of all with mental, intellectual, and developmental disabilities are unemployed and in 2017 Special Dogs & More was born.
We are a restaurant here in downtown Columbus that employs and trains those with mental, intellectual, and developmental disabilities. We help them get the training and confidence to be able to hold down a job.
If you check us out, you will see that not only do people love the mission. The food is pretty darn good if I do say so myself.
We are in a downtown location that has been hit very hard. All of offices downtown are still closed and everyone is working from home.
To date, we have put safety measures in place, we have increased hours to accommodate a dinner crowd, we have added beer and wine, we have increased our menu selection and the list goes on.
Please feel free to check us out at www.specialdogsandmore.com and www.facebook.com/specialdogsandmore
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Sincerely,
Randy and Robin Lapidus