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Family of little boy with epilepsy left with happy tears after benefit

At the final Paws 4 Noah fundraiser, the Moline Police Benevolent Association presented the Stone family a check for $13,538. The money will all go towards buyi...

At the final Paws 4 Noah fundraiser, the Moline Police Benevolent Association presented the Stone family a check for $13,538.

The money will all go towards buying a service dog for Noah Stone, a 5-year-old boy with severe epilepsy. The dog is trained to detect seizures before they happen and catch Noah when he falls.

Click here for more coverage on Paws 4 Noah.

Noah already wears a helmet to protect his head when he has severe seizures, but his family won't be able to be with him all the time the older he gets, which is why he needs a service dog as soon as possible.

"We know the signs for when he's about to have [a seizure] but his teachers don't," said Taylor Stone, Noah's mother.

"It'll be peace of mind when he's away from us for eight hours with strangers who don't know him at all yet," said Betty Stone, Noah's grandmother. "This dog is going to be 100-percent focused on Noah like we would be."

The service dog costs $15-thousand and is too expensive for the Stone family to afford. They've been raising funds through a GoFundMe website the last two weeks, but only raised about $3,000.

On Saturday, hundreds of people showed their support by stopping by the Paws 4 Noah fundraiser event at Crabby's Bar and Grill in Coal Valley, Illinois. People made donations at the door and bought raffle prizes, all  money donated towards the cause.

"It's just been awesome that all these people have come to help Noah," said Julie Geyer, a family friend. "I never thought this many people would show up."

At the end of the day, between the GoFundMe site, private and public donations, and the check presented by the Moline Police Benevolent Association, Paws 4 Noah raised over $24,000 dollars.

"I can't even express how I'm feeling, I don't think I've felt this before, I'm very overwhelmed," said Noah's grandmother, Betty. "I'm very grateful to everybody that has helped. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

"As soon as we met Noah, we knew we had to do this," said Scott Williams of the Moline Police Benevolent Association. "It just makes it all worth while, it's why we got into law enforcement in the first place."

In addition to the donations, the East Moline Animal Clinic also donated a lifetime of free yearly checkups and vaccinations, as well as free veterinary services for Noah's service dog.

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