Help Tacoma-Based Golden Ears Hearing Dogs Win A Car From Toyota

(Editor's note: Here is a great way to help a local nonprofit headed by University Place resident Linda Lohdefinck, founder and training director at Golden Ears Hearing Dogs. Read on)

Tacoma based Golden Ears Hearing Dogs has been selected as one of 500 nonprofit finalists in Toyota’s 100 Cars for Good program, a major philanthropic initiative in which the automaker is giving 100 cars to 100 vehicles over the course of 100 days.  Golden Ears Hearing Dogs was selected as a finalist from more than 4,000 applications nationwide.

Each day, beginning May 14, 2012, 100 Cars for Good has profiled five finalists at www.100carsforgood.com.   Individual members of the public will be able to vote for which ever nonprofit they think can do the most good with a new vehicle.  The nonprofit with the most votes at the end of each day will win one of six Toyota models.  Runners-up will each receive a $1,000 cash grant from Toyota.

Golden Ears Hearing Dogs will be up for consideration on Thursday, August 16, 2012 from 7:00 a.m. – 8:59 p.m. Pacific Time.

“Everyone at Golden Ears Hearing Dogs is so excited to have been selected as a finalist for the 2012 100 Cars for Good program,” said Linda Lohdefinck, a University Place resident who is the Founder and Training Director.  “We’re grateful for this incredible opportunity to showcase our program training hearing dogs for the deaf/severely hard of hearing and hopefully win a car to help us increase our impact in Tacoma and the Puget Sound. We hope everyone will help us spread the word now and, of course, will make time to visit www.100carsforgood.com on August 16, 2012 to vote for us.  A new vehicle would really be a game changer for increasing our ability to train and place hearing dogs.”

“At Toyota, we appreciate what a significant impact a new car can have for nonprofits nationwide,” noted Michael Rouse, vice president of philanthropy for Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.  “Toyota has donated more than half a billion dollars to nonprofits across the U.S. over the past 20 years, and 100 Cars for Good allows us to expand that commitment to local communities in important new ways.  The 500 finalists are an extraordinary group, and we look forward to the public learning more about them.”

100 Cars for Good is the first initiative to directly engage the public to determine how Toyota’s philanthropic donations are awarded.  

For more information on Golden Ears Hearing Dogs and its efforts to win one of Toyota’s 100 Cars for Good, please visit Golden Ears' website at www.goldenearsdogs.org.  You can also follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/goldenearshearingdogs.  For complete information on 100 Cars for Good and profiles of all 500 finalists, please visit www.100carsforgood.com.

Local residents are encouraged to support Golden Ears Hearing Dogs and their quest for a new Toyota Sienna. If Golden Ears receives the most votes and is awarded the vehicle, it will be used to transport hearing dogs in-training, equipment used for training the hearing dogs, program participants and their dogs to and from training classes, presentations and events, supplies and goods donated, and for the placement of trained hearing dogs with deaf and hard of hearing individuals.

A six-year, 100,000-mile powertrain warranty will also be provided for each vehicle, compliments of Toyota Financial Services.