Strung Out Episode 145. GRANDPA OF THE DOG PARK.

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I never knew that I would learn a valuable lesson at the Potawatomi Park's "Dog Friend Zone" or what people call a dog park.   The dog park was tucked away in a corner near the railroad tracks.  And at my first visit,  I noticed that a lot of the park looked like it had been built by hand, from ramps and benches and even the home-made box for poop bags.  It wasn't anything like a city project that I had seen.  And it turns out that it wasn't.  It was the participation of ordinary, dog-loving people who decided to band together and bring to that part of Rogers Park something that was desperately needed.  They brought their requests to the Rogers Park Participatory Budget to bet some funding.  And when the budget for buying materials and accessories was not available, they took it upon themselves to make it happen.   

The result was that people created a community based around participation and volunteering.  And that community is reinforced by celebrations of holidays with their pets, like Christmas and Halloween.  

Every group needs a good leader and the person who is helping lead is the person called the Grandpa of the Dog Park, or Dan Raven.   Dan takes some time to talk to Martin not only about what it takes to build community from the ground up. but how volunteering is a ministry in itself.  Grandpa of the Dog Park is a lesson in how humility and love for fellow man and dog can do more to create community than any public works project.  The lessons in this podcast are there to glean and use in your neighborhood, too. 

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