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Our Story
Last year my brother Jason was diagnosed with an auto-immune
disease called type 1 diabetes. My family was devastated. I
wanted to help Jason in any way possible. Jason's getting a medical
assistance dog that will tell someone when his blood sugar is
dangerously low or high. I spent time during the summer selling
lemonade to raise money towards the costs of training a dog. I
exceeded my goal of $6,000. So far
the grand total is almost $17,000. The Missouri Attorney General has filed charges against Heaven Scent Paws. We have been working with a different dog and a different trainer. Jason's new dog Red is really awesome! He even flew to New York with us and toured the Statue of Liberty, saw Blue Man Group, and had his picture taken in front of Picasso's Green painting at the Museum of Modern Art. 
R.A.D.D. was started after I won an award from Prudential Spirit of Community as one of America's Top Youth Volunteers. I named it after my brother's dog Red and because he alerts us when my brother is in danger. A diabetic alert dog can save a life and make the quality of life better. The total cost of just one dog is far less then a single hospital stay.
I, Mark Rinkel, have built this website to help educate people about diabetes, to help fund raise for dogs and research, and mainly to help however I can, except for training dogs. I'm not qualified for that. We are helping to raise money for puppies to become trained and to help pay for trainers.
Unfortunately, our time with Heaven Scent Paws was not exactly what we
expected. The dog we received was
tested by experts as unqualified as
a service dog. We are cooperating
fully in an investigation by the
Missouri Attorney General. We hope
donations will eventually be returned
or forwarded to the trainer who is
currently working with us to train a very special dog named Red. My next venture is to start a charity named Red Alert Dogs for Diabetics after Jason's new dog Red. Red Alert's first goal is to get experts around the country together to write up industry standards for diabetic alert dogs so that no other families end up getting a poorly trained dog. Secondly, we want to work with the scientific community to prove a properly trained dog does work. Using that information we'd like to work with scientists to develop a breath test for blood sugar instead of always having to get poked for a blood test. A dear friend of ours has posted stories from several of the families who had difficulties at Heaven Scent Paws like we did. If you want to know more you can visit her site at Gr8ful1.org. Click here to go to the Attorney Generals website.
Mark Wins The Gold
This year close to 20,000 students participated in the Prudential Spirit of Community award program with 102 state honorees who received $1,000 in scholarship and an all expense-paid trip to Washington D.C. From the 102 honorees a panel of judges including Senator John Kerry, Senator
Chuck Hagel, Arthur Ryan CEO of Prudential, Barry Stark president of the National Association for Secondary School Principals, actor Richard Dreyfuss, and many more selected 5 high school and 5 middle school students as the national honorees. The U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced the national winners naming Mark as one of America's Top 10 Youth Volunteers. Mark won a gold medal, $5,000 scholarship and $5,000 for chairty which will be used to help Mark's new charity Red Alert accomplish it's goal of bringing credibility to diabetic alert dogs. Click here to visit the Prudential website.