A fifth-grader at Los Gatos' Yavneh Day School at the time (she's now at Union Middle School), Sarah was impressed by a story she read about another preteen, Stephanie Taylor, who in 1999 created a nonprofit organization called Vest-A-Dog, Inc., to raise money for bulletproof vests for the Oceanside Police Department's dogs.

Since then, Stephanie's fundraising and awareness campaigns have inspired people around the United States to provide more than 1,000 police dogs with vests. The vests are made by International Armor and come in three "models": $495 for a bullet-resistant vest, $525 for a stab-resistant vest or $695 for a vest that resists both stabbing and ballistic impacts.

Sometime prior to reading Stephanie's story, Sarah and her family had met Los Gatos­Monte Sereno (LG­MSPD) Police Officer Sam Wonnell and his partner, Quarz, in a Los Gatos shopping center. A self-proclaimed animal lover with two dogs of her own, Sarah says she took to Quarz right away, and he to her.

Wonnell, who gave Sarah his business card, remembers the meeting well. "She asked me if we had bulletproof vests for the dogs. I told her it was something that was talked about once but it didn't really go any further," he says.

So Sarah emailed Stephanie at Vest-A-Dog and got all the details on how to raise money. "Nobody was doing it up here, so I wanted to," Sarah says. In the case of the LG­MSPD, that meant fundraising for three vests because, along with Quarz and Wonnell, the department has two other K-9 teams: Eddie and Officer Erin Lunsford and Vendi and Officer Derek Moye.

"My husband said, 'I'll get it started by buying the first vest, and you can pay me back,'" recalls Sarah's mother, Amy. "When we called Officer Wonnell and talked to him about it, he was very excited."

Sarah was excited as well.

"When I first read about it, I thought it might take awhile. But after I started ... it went pretty smoothly," she says, referring to the flyers and the donation cans she placed at many local businesses, including the Los Gatos Dog and Cat Hospital, Pet People, Lunardi's, I Do Hair Couture, Natural Nails and Joe Escobar Diamonds.

"I liked going everywhere. It made me happy when people wanted to help. I like knowing that I can do something to help and maybe save a dog," Sarah says.

Not content with the passive approach, she also explained her project to her classmates, many of whom contributed what they could. She also sets up a table at various town events, including the Fiesta de Artes and last weekend's free movie screening in Oak Meadow Park as part of the Los Gatos Film Festival.

So far her pet project has raised enough money to outfit both Quarz and Eddie with top-of-the-line vests. Vendi, the dog with the least seniority, will get his vest as soon as a few hundred dollars more comes in. When it does, Sarah's parents will mail a check or money order for the vest and, when it arrives, Sarah will present it to Vendi, just as she's done with her other two canine friends.

"I'm very proud that Sarah has the courage and the drive to step up and do something for the community. She's a little quiet at first, but when you talk with her, she's more mature than the average 11-year-old," Wonnell says. "Quarz is the best partner I've ever had. If anything happened to him, I'd be devastated. For Sarah to do something to help him makes her a hero to me."

For more information about Vest-A-Dog, visit www.dogvest.com or call 760.598.3031.