The Harper Creek Girl Scouts Troop donated and installed a new sign for the Home Run Dog Park’s East entrance over the weekend.
After spending the summer selling Girl Scout cookies, the members of Troop 80268 from Harper Creek High School were looking for a community improvement project. They approached the Home Run Dog Park Committee, and offered donate their funds for a special project to help the dog park.
Rachel Osterhart and Katie Behnke, along with their Scout leader Denise Demarest met with Michael Delaware, the Committee Chairman, to go over project options for teh dog park. After discussing a few projects, they decided to work on installing a new directional sign on the East entrance to the dog park.
This much needed sign will add visibility for the Home Run Dog Park from Wagner Ave and the East parking lot, and it directs visitors with an arrow down the Linear Path to the East and Central entrances.
After a few weeks of working on planning with the committee, which required coordination with the Parks and Recreation Department, they ordered the materials, and made a list of the tools they would need. Rachel and Katie then decided to schedule their installation for Saturday morning. September 19th, 2020.
With the supervision of Jeff Breedlove the Infastructure and Maintenance Director for the Home Run Dog Park, and using Girl Scout teamwork, the pair spent 3 hours on the installation. They had to dig holes, set the posts level and attach cross beams with metal brackets, all before they could attach the sign. When they finished the installation, the result was a fantastic job!
The creative and talented duo then returned on Sunday morning and worked on the landscaping, planting flowers and detailing the area out with mulch at the base.
the brackets that support the cross beams.
The end result is that we now have a very visible and aesthetic East entrance sign for visitors coming from that direction, which will be a much needed help to guide newcomers following their navigation instructions to the Home Run Dog Park.
Additionally, as the popularity of the dog park grows, it will help distribute the volume of parking between the East and West parking lots. Overall, this is an important infastructure improvement that is just so very exciting, as the Home Run Dog Park now has clear visibilty from both ends of the park!
The new directional sign, matching the front West entrance sign with the Home Run Dog Park logo, was printed and manufactured by the Kal-Blue sign company based in Kalamazoo.
During the installation, the hardworking team even had a few four-legged onlookers who stopped by to offer their suggestions and encouragement as you can see in the photos.
A very special thank you to Rachel and Katie for their generous donation, and their incredibly hard work and dedication to making the Home Run Dog Park even that much more wonderful! They get a big tail wag from our four legged friends too!
Such a wonderful job!
