Captain Louie & K9-Star, battling together! Motivational Speaker from The Villages, FL

Captain Louie Belluomini served in the Army for 9 years. He worked as a psychological operations specialist and military police officer during his time in the Army. He was honorably discharged as a Captain in 2015 after serving tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Louie suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and a traumatic brain injury as well as, injuries to his left hip, back and neck, after his deployments and had decided to pursue a treatment plan involving a K9 when medication or counseling didn’t completely solve the issues or failed. Louie and Star were paired together by K9s for Warriors, the largest K9/Veteran pairing organization in the United States, a non-profit program out of Ponte Vedra, Florida that connects service dogs with veterans suffering from the same things Louie does. Star performs tasks for Louie that he cannot do on his own. 90% of the dogs from the program are rescue dogs. Their motto is “put a new leash on life”! Star acts mostly as a bodyguard protecting Louie from any possible threat that would normally startle him and cause him to react in a negative/scary manor. Louie has worked as a paramedic in the local communities for the past 18 years. He currently works at Ohio Ambulance, based in Cleveland and Cincinnati, Ohio as a paramedic/EMS K9 Team and assisting in recruitment. Louie has worked as a flight medic in his career and has deployed to Hurricane Katrina and hurricane Ida as a paramedic. Star is also very comforting to certain patients on the squad calls. Star is his sidekick, a 6-year-old golden retriever. Louie and Star are side by side every day. They are never apart. Star works on the ambulance with him and is constantly attending to Louie's needs. Star is the first dog in the Country to actively work on an ambulance with her handler. Since Star works on the ambulance, she is also cross trained to track and search for people in case they have a lost victim they respond to, and COVID-19 detection in April 2020 due to the recent outbreak needs throughout the world. She has been the medication for Louie since September of 2016 when they were paired. Louie and Star have been featured in a film documentary that was produced by DNA films following their day-to-day activities along with 2 other graduates out of over 1,000 graduate K9 teams that had gone through the program. The film tells each of their stories and how they have worked through their issues as a team. The film can be viewed on Amazon Prime or purchased at www.anewleashonlifemovie.com. Amazon has also made this documentary into a series where you can view Louie and Star’s journey in their own episode. The film has won 5 Emmy awards and 3 Telly awards. Star and Louie have not only traveled around Ohio sharing their story and spreading the importance of awareness in the employment environment and motivational speaking of their story, but they have also spread their knowledge across the United States in their fight to see a better life in their fellow Veterans, public safety comrades, as well as awareness to the topic. Some testimonials requesting education, motivational speaking or keynotes: (Cheryl Barber-Fairfield County Safety Council) Extremely eye opening. Enjoyed the movie that CPT. Louie and Star starred in which explained their background. Everyone enjoyed Louie and his presentation, but Star stole the show, and everyone loved her. (Sarah Rogers-Tiffin University) I was impressed on how a service dog could impact a person’s life especially a Veteran struggling with PTSD. The presentation was very enlightening. The stories that CPT. Louie explained how people can be rude and make negative comments toward him when he is in public with his dog. I guess I just never thought someone could be so rude to someone with a service dog, especially a Veteran. (Morgan Gaudet-Radiology Technician Class, Mercy Community College Student) Being an EMT myself I was blown away by the presentation. I was so impressed with the knowledge of the speaker, I never knew that as an EMT I am responsible in taking that service dog on the ambulance to the hospital. I felt this really helped in my knowledge of how to handle situations involving a service dogs and PTSD Awareness. (Stacy Beougher-Grand Lake Safety Council)-Louie and Star were amazing. Our lunch ends at 1pm and he told everyone he understood if they needed to leave but just had a little more information to share. Everyone stayed an extra 20 minutes! No one left! He was wonderful! (Judy Collins-GLSC)-We had Louie and k9-Star speak at GLSC and they did a fantastic job. Their story will jerk your heart strings. (Jared Smith)-UF Nursing Student- I was so impressed with the entire presentation, but I was even more impressed during the demonstration and seeing how Star responds to Louie’s needs as well as the difference between the dog being in the vest and out of it. Amazed at the difference once the dog is told to go to work. Experience it yourself!