While in the eighth grade in the Salt Lake City, Utah area, Iowa State redshirt freshman forward Morgan Kane met her now friend Tabitha Hill, in a coincidental interaction that eventually led to the start of a non-profit organization and 5K that will be held at 8 a.m. at Ada Hayden Park in Ames, Iowa.

Hill and Kane met in eighth grade when Hill, who has muscular dystrophy, moved to the middle school Kane was attending in the Salt Lake City, Utah area.

Kane was showing Hill and her service dog, a german shepard named Sunny, around the school.

This interaction led them to become friends and it eventually led them to start their non-profit organization called Pawsitive Pawsibilities that same school year (2013-2014).

Pawsitive Pawsibilities goal since the start has been to raise money for people who need service dogs.

Fast forward six years later and on April 26, Kane will be hosting a 5K at Ada Hayden Park in Ames, Iowa, at 8 a.m. to raise money for service animals for people who need them but can’t afford them.

“My goal with doing this 5K in Ames is to get the community involved to spread more awareness about service dogs, the need for them and to raise money,” Kane said.

Since its founding in 2014, Pawsitive Pawsibilities has hosted events similar to this upcoming 5K.

The first was Sunny’s Spring Sing Benefit Concert in Sandy, Utah, in 2017, which raised four thousand dollars and the other one was the Super Paws 5K in 2017 in Sandy, Utah, which raised six thousand dollars.

Now, the Super Paws 5K will be taking in place in Ames on April 26.

Hosting a 5K is not an easy thing to do. It merely is not a one-person job.

Because of this, Kane has been spreading the word of this event with the help of her coaches and students, mainly through flyers and word of mouth.

Since working with Pawsitive Pawsibilities, Kane has had the opportunity to give back to the community, something she has wanted to do since she was 13 years old.

“I really love helping people and giving back to the community,” Kane said. “Giving back to the community is very important to me and this is something that I’ve really wanted to do. We started this back in eighth grade, its really just grown from there.

For Kane, every time she helps a person who needs a service dog, it makes her want to help and give back even more.

“Every time we’re able to make a placement with a dog and a person, see that connection and change their life to enable them to do things that they weren’t able to do before…it makes me want to do more, help more, educate the community, so that way more people can see the impact and the benefits of having a service dog,” Kane said.

The idea was first brought up by Hill, who wanted Kane to help her with this idea. “Kids helping kids” was how they defined their organization.

Now Kane and Hill are in separate states.

Despite this, they are both trying to make Pawsitive Pawsibilities a successful non-profit organization.

“I wanted to bring this with me to college and get the community involved because the community of Ames is so amazing,” Kane said. “They show a lot of support for us as a team and I know they’ll show support for this as well.”

For more information on Pawsitive Pawsibilities, you can visit their website.