Nothing is truly free...including our dog parks

There is no charge to use the Duluth Dog Parks. It isn't that way everywhere though. It is quite common to have a fee to use dog parks. Often the price is $30-$50 per year or $3-5 per day to use the dog park. There are a variety of ways that the fee is monitored to make sure users pay the fee.

Duluth dog parks require no fee to use them, which is great. However since the City also does not support them financially there is a problem. We must rely on grant writing, donations and fund raising to build and maintain the parks. Since we have no formal organization it falls on a very small number of people to organize fund raisers to keep our dog parks maintained. We have had a donation option on this Duluth Dog Park website for months and there hasn't been a single person who has been willing to make a donation to support the dog parks.

There are upcoming issues at all of the parks. This includes the desire for water at Keene which will be an expensive addition. The benches at Observation have already been repaired a few times and will need to be replaced with commercial benches at some point. They run around $300 per bench. The new eastern park will need a variety of things including additional fencing supplies to supplement the used supplies we retrieved, trees, benches, etc.

We need all of you to help to donate in this shirt fund raiser. Think about how much pleasure you get from thg dog parks. Think about how often you use them. Think about what you are willing to spend to support this current fund raiser. We need you to support our current fund raiser and buy a t shirt. Or two.

Yes, the temperatures are cool and it is hoody weather but 100 t shirts have been donated by Advantage Emblem and Screen Printing. This is an incredible way to make $1500 for little effort, as long as people take advantage of this offer. Buy a t shirt and put it in the drawer so you will have it next summer. We are charging $15 for a t shirt, which will put $15 into the bank for each shirt purchased. The price we are charging for a hoody is $35 and we must pay $25 for the shirt so not as great of a profit but several people requested the option of a hoody.

Please consider buying a t shirt to help pay into future park costs. You can use the donate function on this website to make a donation for your shirt but it is preferred to print off the order form and mail it in to make it easier to track the purchases. The way this fund raiser works is we are taking shirt orders and payment. The order form can be printed here. Fill out the form and sent it along with a check to Denette Lynch, 6004 Highland St, Duluth, MN 55807. When we have sold enough we will place the order. When the shirt order is complete, then we will make arrangements at the dog parks to deliver the shirts. Or other arrangements will be made to get your merchandise to you. This method will allow us to have the exact number and size of shirts printed so we don't have excess merchandise in the wrong sizes to have to store and try to sell.

It would be great if you would take time to make an order, write a check and put it in the mail within the next two weeks. If you would prefer we could arrange a meeting at one of the dog parks and I can bring an order form and take your cash for your order. You can email duluthdogparks@yahoo.com to make any arrangements or ask questions.

Please consider financially contributing to the dog parks by ordering a t shirt.