Rocco’s Tacos owner serves hope to family

Disabled boy’s dog to get trained at FAU

BOCA RATON — A 6-year-old boy with a severe genetic disorder will soon have a skilled golden retriever to make his life easier, thanks to some creative thinking by a local restaurateur.

The boy’s mother, Nicole BolufeCruz, wanted to train the two-yearold family dog, Faith, to be able to help little Liam, who has cerebral palsy and Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome, which impair his speech and weaken his muscles.

Bolufe-Cruz said dog specialists told her training Faith would cost more than $10,000, which she could not afford. So in desperation, she approached Rocco Mangel, a prodigious fundraiser and partner in seven Rocco’s Tacos restaurants in Florida.

“I reached out to so many people,” said Bolufe-Cruz, 38. “He was my last resort.”

Mangel said he gets three or four requests a week from people who need money. He met with the family to make sure the request wasn’t a hoax and said he was deeply moved by Liam, who waves his arms and says “bow-wow-wow” when he hears Faith’s name.

Mangel contacted his friend Bob Anderson, owner of Anderson’s International K-9 College in West Palm Beach, who had trained Mangel’s Rhodesian ridgeback.

Anderson was working with Florida Atlantic University’s police department, which was about to begin fundraising for the department’s first drug-detection dog. FAU also has a dog that searches for explosives.

As the men began brainstorming, a restaurant patron asked Mangel if he could buy a painting off a Rocco’s Tacos wall in Boca Raton for $5,000.

Mangel decided to donate that sum toward Faith’s training and toward buying Kona, a 15-month-old chocolate Labrador retriever, for the FAU police.

The university needs a second dog to cope with expected additional cam-

MARIA LORENZINO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER FAU Police are assisting in the special-needs training of a family’s golden retriever, Faith, for Liam Cruz, left, who suffers from a rare disorder that has left him with limited movement and muscle development.