HOORAY--We Did It!!

We had two volunteer work days on Sept 18 and 19. We had ten volunteers on the 18th and fifteen on the 19th. I am continually amazed at how much can be accomplished in a day with motivated volunteers. Our volunteers ranged in age from early 20's to early 70's. We were mostly women. Some had little experience with tools. One couldn't help in person but donated money which paid for sodas, donuts, brats and buns for lunch. One arranged to borrow a heavy trailer and pickup to transport materials on Friday. Many chipped in with additional sweets and treats to share and other lunch items. People chipped in by bringing grills, cooking and setting things up for lunch. People brought what tools they had and generously shared with others. Two dogs attended and supervised the work. Two volunteers don't even have dogs. Several have dogs that don't use the dog parks due to health or other issues. Some had to leave early, some came later, and all contributed to two days of removing a total of 2160 feet (200 feet had been removed by prior volunteer efforts) of chain link fencing. We have 2160 feet of top rails, 1272 feet of bottom rail, approximately 150 posts and many hundreds of fasteners and various connections to hold it all together.

Many individuals helped out but I must especially praise Ruth and Jamie Bird with Economy Garages. This volunteer work and transport of the materials to the new site would not have happened as smoothly and quickly as it did without their encouragement, advice, strength, time, skills and heavy equipment. They have made numerous trips from far west Duluth to far, far east Duluth with trailers and trucks, loading and unloading, multiple times. They have used their excavator to pull posts and load and unload rolls of chain link fencing that were too heavy to lift by hand. They have loaded and unloaded many hundreds of posts and rails by hand, by them selves. This project would not be at this stage without them.

The fencing that was donated was the fencing behind Morgan Park School. This property was purchased by Aaron Schweiger, Developer and Project Manager for Schweiger Development Holding & Management, LLC. He donated all the fencing to Duluth Dog Parks for re-use at the new eastern dog park. Thank you, Aaron, for allowing us to take the fencing. This donation will save us many thousands of dollars to construct the new dog park.

Thanks to (in no particular order) Jane Smythe, Mary Millard, Tammy and Dennis Olsen, John Clark, Sr, Vicky Carper, Bill and Denette Lynch, Heidi Harrison, Sharon Eicher, Doris and Chuck Mehlberg, Mike Casey, Sarah Fritz, Andy Moroff, Judy Jambois, April Winter, Lindsay Helwig, Lynnette Olson, Ruth and Jamie Bird, Bill Majewski, Aaron Schweiger, Advantage Emblem and Screen Printing, and Economy Garages for all they have done to remove and relocate the fencing to create a new dog park in eastern Duluth.

If you want to be aware and involved with what is happening with the eastern dog park, join East Duluth Dog Park on Facebook.