In the early spring of 2019, I was talking with older gentleman that I had gotten to know as a Saturday regular at Weaver Street Market in Carrboro, North Carolina. A dog passed by, and he gave it a lot of attention before turning back to me to continue the conversation, and so I asked him if he had dogs of his own. With a sad look, he explained that loves dogs, and he had thought of getting one, but he was so old that he was afraid of what would happen if he couldn’t care for it properly. He was almost 90 years old. Who would walk it? Who would take it in if it were to outlive him? Would someone even know in time to help it if something were to happen to him alone at home one day?

An idea started to simmer. And sure enough, the same gentleman did pass away a few months later. This cranked up the heat a little, but the idea still sat on the back burner… until the following spring. In March of 2020, our own dog – Beckett – fell ill, passing away about ten weeks later after scrambling to discover the cause and treat the symptoms. I had met him 7 years prior through my wife when he was already 3 years old, and he quickly became my best friend. The loss was devastating.

Amid a pandemic, we struggled to feel thankful for what we had while others were losing so much, but I grappled with a lack of direction and purpose. It was on a run with Doug – who has joined the board to support this effort – that I first openly talked about my interest in starting something in his honor that would help save dog lives while enriching the lives of seniors who live alone. And so the Beckett Foundation was born, a board was formed, and now we’re setting out to make a difference one dog at a time.