Last year, Megan LaFontaine raised $500 for Riding to the Top, a Windham-based therapeutic horseback riding center where she volunteers.

This year, the 13-year-old Gray girl wants to do better.

Megan is organizing what she hopes will be an annual dog walk to benefit the center, which helps children and adults with disabilities.

On Aug. 9, dogs and their owners will gather in Portland’s Payson Park starting at 9 a.m. After walking the Baxter Boulevard, dogs will have a chance to show off their costumes, talents and frisbee-catching capabilities, and to win prizes in each category. There will also be doggie demonstrations from the Portland Police Department and a local agility club.

The entry fee for each event is $10, and the demonstrations are free. The proceeds will all go to Riding to the Top, and donations can also be made through Megan’s Web site, www.firstgiving.com/meganlafontaine.

After conducting a garage sale last year to raise money for the organization, Megan set her sights higher. It is her love of animals that got her to volunteer at Riding to the Top, so it made sense to base the fundraiser around her four-legged friends.

“I’ve always kind of wanted to be a vet,” she said last week at her Hyde Road home, her 18-month-old Australian shepherd Sierra at her side. “I love animals and I’ve always wanted to work with them.”

At Riding to the Top, children and adults with a variety of disabilities, from autism to multiple sclerosis to cerebral palsy, are taken on therapeutic horseback rides at their base in Windham and at their satellite program at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester.

The rides allow the participants to engage their senses, build strength and socialize in a way that they often are unable to in day-to-day life, said Sarah Bronson, a physical therapist at the center.

For those with brain injuries, the rituals of preparing a horse reinforce the sequences they need to complete in everyday life. For those in a wheelchair, the horse ride offers mobility. For those who are sensitive to the onslaught of sounds, smells and feel in the outside world, the rides are soothing and reassuring.

“It’s a natural environment, it’s a living animal,” she said. “It’s easier for them to process it.”

Spread over the LaFontaine’s dinner table were the prizes for the winners at Megan’s dog walk and talent contest. She has little bandanas for the dogs, and is making homemade treats.

Mosher Woodworking in Gray is donating three handmade dog bowl stands for the winners, and Planet Dog has pledged toys for the first 30 people to sign up, as well as 80 stickers to be handed out at the event.

Megan and her mother Darleen created the Web site with approval from Riding to the Top, and they have blanketed key areas with posters announcing the dog walk.

“We’ve put up posters at local kennel shops and doggy daycares,” Megan said.

Workers at Riding to the Top are impressed with Megan’s plan to help them out.

“I think it’s great any time a volunteer takes on a fundraising effort on our behalf,” said Bronson. “She’s pulled together a lot to do this.”

As a volunteer over the last two years, Megan has pitched in around the center, which she learned about through her mom, an instructor there for three years.

“I either sidewalk or lead the horses in lessons, or I just do barnwork sometimes,” said Megan.

Megan sees the gains made by the patients she works with as she helps with the horse rides. Her favorite part, she said, is “seeing the kids be able to smile and have fun. Even though they might have some things they need to get past, they still have fun.”

A CLOSER LOOK

Dog Walk to Benefit Riding to the Top

Saturday, Aug. 9 (Rain date: August 10)

$10 per event (dog walk, talent contest, frisbee catch)

Free demonstrations from Portland Police Department K-9 unit, local agility club

For more information or to register, visit:

www.ridingtothetop.org

www.firstgiving.com/meganlafontaine

Gray resident Megan LaFontaine, 13, and her 1-year-old Australian Shephard, Sierra will be participating in a dog walk Megan organized for Aug. 9 in Portland. The walk will start in Payson Park and proceed along Baxter Boulevard. All proceeds from the walk will benefit Riding To The Top Therapeutic Horseback Riding Center in Windham. For more information about the dog walk visit www.firstgiving.com/meganlafontaine