AUBURN -- With the communities support, a local teenager is one step closer to gaining some independence by acquiring a specially trained dog that will help protect him when he has a seizure.

Because of the severity and the frequency of his seizures, Anthony Granato, 16, who suffers from Dravet Syndrome, has never been more than an arm's length away from a supervising adult for the past seven years. Even when he sleeps, his parents keep an eye on him to ensure that he does not have a seizure and hurt himself in the middle of the night.

"The dog will be tethered to him all the time so he can go everywhere with it, like the grocery store," said Kim Granato, Anthony's mother. "Right now an adult is always within an arm's length from Anthony, but with the dog, he can be within eye distance. The dog will also sleep with him and alert us to his seizures so I wont have to be right there with him all the time."

With cars lining the streets and the Ukrainian Club in Auburn filled to standing room only on Sunday, Granato said she believed the Paws for Anthony benefit could raise the needed money by the end of the night. Prior to the benefit the group had raised $5,000 for the $11,000 dog.

As they ate a pasta dinner or signed up for raffle prizes, many of the visitors stopped to say hello and to hug Anthony, or to give him a pat on the back and wish him good luck. Anthony also got a chance to meet one of the K-9 units from the Auburn Police Department.

Donna Porter, a teacher's aide who has worked with Anthony in middle school, said she was glad to see so many members of the community coming out to support Anthony.

"This will give (Anthony) some freedom," Porter said. "He really needs some freedom and independence and this dog will be awesome ... The biggest thing is we want him to be happy and academically successful."

In addition to removing nearby objects that could hurt of suffocate Anthony when he has a seizure and alerting nearby adults, Granato said she also hopes the dog will eventually be able to learn how to pre-alert a seizure attack. Currently, Anthony suffers from at least one seizure a week.

"If the dog pre-alerts to a seizure, that would be a great," Granato said. "We could get to him before he gets hurt."