A dinner and auction honoring Pasco County's police dogs is coming to Brooksville this November, with tickets set at $75 a person and every dollar raised going toward the sheriff's office K9 program. The Dine With The K9s event is scheduled for November 7, starting at 5 p.m. at Southern Hills Plantation Club, and organizers say tickets must be purchased in advance.
The event is presented by The Valentina Tomashosky Foundation and is being supported by the Pasco Sheriff's Office, according to the agency's own announcement. The foundation was established in honor of Valentina Tomashosky, a 17-year-old Central High School Navy JROTC cadet lieutenant who died in April 2021 after stepping on a fallen live power line while escaping her storm-damaged, burning vehicle in Hernando County, according to Love, Val - The Valentina Tomashosky Foundation. She was weeks from high school graduation and had planned to study forensic science at the University of South Florida, per the foundation's account. Registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, the organization raises funds to support Tampa Bay area youth, JROTC programs, veterans, and law enforcement K9 units, including Pasco Sheriff's Charities.
The evening will be hosted by Cpl. Nick Carmack, who gained national attention appearing alongside his former K9 partner, Shep, on A&E's reality series Live PD for two years before Shep retired from active duty with the Pasco Sheriff's Office in 2023, according to WTSP. Carmack and Shep became fan favorites on the show and even traveled to New York for live broadcasts, the station reported.
A Survivor Takes the Spotlight
Joining Carmack as the evening's special guest is retired K9 Jerry Lee, a police dog who survived being shot in the line of duty in Georgia in 2021 while protecting his handler, Officer Edward Reeves. Jerry Lee lost a leg in the shooting but survived, and has since served as a national ambassador for working dog medical care, according to a post from the Love, Val Foundation on Facebook. The dinner will also feature meet-and-greets with local K9s and their handlers, including K9 Stitch, K9 Bear, K9 Bogey, and K9 Kid, along with auction and raffle items, dinner, a cash bar, and a live auction.
Why K9 Charities Matter So Much
The Pasco Sheriff's Office operates one of the largest law enforcement K9 units in Florida, with more than 50 active teams trained in patrol, narcotics, bloodhound tracking, and therapy work, the agency has said. Community donations through Pasco Sheriff Charities fully fund the purchase, specialized training, and protective equipment for every active dog in the department's fleet, meaning the agency leans on non-profit support rather than taxpayer dollars alone to acquire its working dogs.
That funding structure extends into retirement, too. Under agency policy, retired Pasco K9s live permanently at home with their deputy partners once their service ends, while ongoing medical expenses are covered through the Pasco Sheriff's Charities K9 Association, ensuring the dogs receive care for life. The stakes of that investment were on display as recently as June, when Pasco K9 teams assisted in a Port Richey search warrant that turned up 395.6 grams of fentanyl and 1.5 kilograms of methamphetamine, a haul that represented more than 197,000 potential lethal doses.
The department's K9 roster has also grown more specialized in recent years. In July 2024, the agency added K9 Chase, an Electronic Storage Detection dog trained to locate hidden digital media like micro SD cards during child exploitation investigations, according to Our Rescue, the nonprofit that funded his training through donor grants. All proceeds from November's dinner will benefit the Pasco Sheriff K9 Charities, supporting the kind of acquisitions and lifelong care that keep the unit running.
