Eleven Year Old Indigo Huber's Passion To Help Others Raised The Funds Needed For Pumpkin's Training

LEBANON, OH -- Back in November, 11-year 0ld Indigo Huber, along with her younger brother Ozzy, held a fundraiser to help their seven-year-old neighbor Nora and her family. 

After November in 2021, Nora began having seizures every day. "At her worst, Nora was having hundreds of seizures, multiple drop attacks that caused whole body drops, head drops and hand drops," explained Carrie Huber, Indigo and Ozzy's mom. 

"In January 2023, she had a VNS (imagine a pacemaker, but for your brain) surgically implanted to help control her seizures. Unfortunately, Nora continues to have uncontrolled seizures, about 5-7 a week. She is unable to sleep alone, some of her seizures resemble a stroke and leave her unable to move. Having a service dog would bring more independence for her, such as being able to sleep in her own room without fear. A dog would be able to alert Nora to sit down and rest in a safe place before she would have a seizure and hopefully prevent them all together with a feature on her VNS that uses a magnet to send an extra burst of electricity to her brain and kick her brain out of seizure mode," Carrie added.

While Nora did receive her service dog Pumpkin, her family didn't have the funds for Pumpkin's training, until Indigo Hunter put her passion and drive to help others into action.

"The charity stand was a HUGE success!" explained Carrie. "Thanks to all of the support from people in the greater Lebanon community, Facebook community, Nora's GoFundMe page and beyond, the kids collected just under $5,000 for Nora and Pumpkin's family!"  

 Enough money was raised so that 7-year old Nora's service dog, Pumpkin, will be able to obtain the seizure alert training he needs.

"I'm so happy and proud of these kids for helping bless this family," Carrie explained in an email she sent the WarrenCountyPost.com. 

In the email she explained, "Indigo and Ozzy, as well as Sarah's 3 youngsters (Nora and siblings) all did fantastic preparing the goodies for the big day! I wish you could have seen how much fun they had helping all of their guests with treats and cocoa selections. Nora's little brother was a polite, little professional at pouring and preparing everyone's hot cocoa with toppings, and the kids were all very excited to talk about all the goodie selections, as well as what the money was going towards. The WCPO story made it to Yahoo News, too! And after the weekend, we had individuals from across the US donating money to the family."

Carrie went on to explain about all the positive actions she saw from individuals in the community  wanting to help Nora and her family..."I knew it was going to be a successful day when the first customer that came to their stand read the paper, saw Nora and Pumpkin, took a single cookie and then put a $100 bill in the jar." 

Carrie added she couldn't believe how many $50's and $100's were put into that jar that day."A few times throughout the day, there would be a car that slipped in, a person walked up and put $10 or $20 in the jar, and then just casually walked away and declined any cookies or cocoa as a thank you," she noted.

"I don't think the younger kiddos understand how much kindness and hope they spread through the community with all of this, but Indigo gets the big picture," Carrie added.

Because of Indigo's charity drive and the Lebanon Community's support, Pumpkin is able to receive the special training he needs to be Nora's service dog.

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