Emma Dwyer takes her emotions to karate — all of them, anger, hurt, sadness, happiness and excitement.

“To me, it’s my safe space,” she said. 

She started karate when she was three after losing both her parents in a murder-suicide. The Department of Human Services recommended starting an extracurricular activity after the tragedy.

“A lot of people that experience grief and loss so young end up going down the wrong paths,” she explained. 

Now 19, she is a black belt in karate and has mastered some of the core tenets of the sport, including discipline and humility. 

Angels of America’s Fallen started financially supporting Dwyer’s hobbies when she was an older elementary student, including karate and later hula dancing. 

The nonprofit supports children who have lost parents who served in the military or worked as police, firefighters or in emergency medical services to pursue any activity that interests them, such as sports, music and dance. The nonprofit sponsors children who lost parents to service-related deaths and to post-traumatic stress disorder-related suicides. 

In 2008, Emma’s father Russell Dwyer, was a decorated retired soldier and embroiled in a messy separation from his wife when he killed her and himself. 

Such a loss revisits children as they mature. Children who are 7 understand loss differently than those who are 15 and 16, said Joe Lewis, who founded the nonprofit. So the nonprofit’s sponsorship continues until the bereaved child reaches their 19th birthday.

In Dwyer’s case, she was bereaved again in high school when her grandparents, who were raising her, passed away months apart in 2022. 

After their deaths, she moved in with her neighbor and friend Emily Cash, who applied for her to get a service dog through Angels of America’s Fallen because the teenager had been asking for a rat and missing a dog she had owned previously. 

Dwyer trained Winston, an Old English sheepdog and poodle mix, who can identify when the stress is getting to her. 

“He will pick it up and just sit on me and just come up and do anything to get my attention, and that’s really awesome,” she said. “Every day is easier because I have him.”

In training, she learned the command “squish,” directing Winston to lay on her and provide deep pressure therapy. The action releases oxytocin, a hormone that helps combat cortisol and brings stress levels down.  

Winston went with Dwyer when she left Colorado Springs to study event planning at the Metropolitan State University of Denver.

She hopes to eventually go into business for herself as a wedding planner, and she loves the idea of helping clients enjoy their special moments stress-free. 

It was a career path she discovered while talking with one of the moms involved in Angels of America’s Fallen.

For a long time, she didn’t think that college was going to be even a possibility for her because of the expense. 

Lewis connected Dwyer with Battlefield Commander Foundation, a nonprofit that granted her a full ride. 

Working with Dwyer through the years, both Joe Lewis and his wife Shelli, have seen Dwyer grow into a strong and resilient young woman, and their particularly close relationship has meant she turned to Joe to chat about making good decisions when she was in high school. 

“She was kind of like a surrogate daughter,” Joe Lewis said. 

While not all relationships with nonprofit staff are that close, the caseworkers will check in with the 600 kids the group supports across the country a few times a year, he said.

Those folks get to know the families and can refer them to other services if necessary, Lewis said. At times, the 5- to 10-minute chats can turn into a 45-minute talk where the nonprofit worker becomes a soundboard, sometimes for a surviving spouse. 

The group’s annual fundraising focuses on ensuring its current enrollees can continue their activities. Despite a down environment for nonprofits this year, Lewis said, he expects to make those commitments. Additional dollars help reach kids on the waitlist, which is about 850, the couple said. 

Raising money is tough this year in part because some federal grants have ended and so those nonprofits have flooded the private foundations that Angels of America’s Fallen typically relies on, Lewis said. But the group is still trying to end the year strong. 

The group is one of the many nonprofits participating in Colorado Gives Day on Dec. 9.

 The statewide push to support charities started on Nov. 9 this year and for those starting new monthly donations, the Colorado Gives Foundation will match the first month’s donation up to $100. 

To give to the nonprofit as part of the Gives Day campaign visit https://www.coloradogives.org/organization/AngelsofAmericasFallen.