The sounds of drills, hammers and weed whackers filled the air at Woodlawn Regional Park, last Saturday morning. A dedicated crew of members of the Estevan Dog Park committee and volunteers took advantage of the sunny morning weather and busied themselves clearing the ground, and building fences to demarcate the boundaries of the new small dog park that's under construction. The new park will be one of two areas.
"We plan on fitting in an area for small dogs, and an area for large dogs. Right now, we're working on the area for small dogs," said committee member Jennifer Gervais over the din of the working volunteers, while taking a break from putting up a fence. "What we're looking to create is another family-oriented park. Estevan is in need of more parks, I think."
The proposal for a dog park in Woodlawn was approved in April of 2014. Gervais said that at that point, a portion of Woodlawn Park near Highway 47, going south of the city was donated to the committee. She added that since that time, the committee has been steadily fundraising, using money raised at events that include the Beach Bash, Bruins’ cabarets, steak nights, along with donations from an assortment of local businesses and organizations, to pay for the necessary expenses in the construction of the dog parks.
"Right now, we're taking a break from fundraising, because Woodlawn Park donated all this chain link fence from the ball diamond that was flooded in 2011," said Gervais. "Once we're finished working on the small dog park, we'll start fundraising for the larger dog area."
Gervais was grateful for the efforts of the crew of volunteers present on Saturday, hammering posts and lengths of chain link fence into place, and clearing the land in the park for further work.
"We have a lot of volunteers who will come out and do a lot of work like this. This is friends, family and people who've caught wind of it, and wanted to help out. We also were blessed with this great weather," said Gervais. "It's hard to line these things up with people, and I just hope that Mother Nature will continue be kind. We're also thankful to Woodlawn for donating the most beautifully treed piece of land in Estevan. You don't see many trees in Estevan, and we're happy about having this area - it's beautiful."
Gervais noted the location is ideal because of the shade the trees provide, and the natural trails that formed in the topography around the river, turned out to be ideal features for a place for families to go and enjoy the outdoors with their furry friends in the warm months.
"People come down here with their dogs all the time. You're not supposed to do it off-leash, so making it into a dog park gives them a place where they can have a picnic, sit by the river and let your dog off the leash," said Gervais. "We're happy to bring an additional park to Estevan, that will bring people outdoors."
