Well, the end of the year was a busy time for us, as we finished up our Kickstarter campaign, competed for a cash grant from Detroit SOUP and spent time with our friends and families at the holidays.

The new year brings new challenges, and we’re looking forward to telling you more about them as we can.

For now, we have our pop up dog park at the old Tigers Stadium from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 16 and you’ll soon be seeing your Kickstarter rewards in the mail.

We’re also looking for help and ideas for fundraising. If you want to help, make sure you sign up for our mailing list and when the call goes out, you’ll be in! If you have any suggestions, email us at detroitdogpark@gmail.com.

Have a great week, dog-lovers!

This is a huge day for us. Some 27 days ago, we launched a fundraiser through Kickstarter, and then we crossed our fingers and waited. After three weeks of hard work, media outreach and social networking on steroids, at about 11 a.m. this morning, a donor put us over $15,000. We met our goal.

With the holidays upon us, Detroit Dog Park would like to thank everyone who supports us, whether by donated, sharing a status updates, coming to our pop-up dog park once a month, or by just stopping us in the street and saying, “good job.” We are anxious to be part of Detroit’s future, and today, we really feel we are one step closer.

So, if you are free on Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., come by old Tigers Stadium on Trumbull and Michigan Avenue for our monthly pop-up dog park. We’re ready to celebrate and we would love you to join us!

This is what we’re starting with.

Detroit is full of parks – seriously. Hundreds. But the city doesn’t have the funds to maintain them all.

Enter Adopt-a-Park. It’s a city program that allows community groups and neighborhood organizations to adopt city parks, improve and maintain them, in exchange for being able to decide what happens there. Other groups in Detroit have used the program to clean up, restore and truly revitalize some of the city’s most beautiful green spaces.

Our park is Macomb Park, also known as Macomb Playlot. It’s an old playground near the iconic train station and Roosevelt Park. The land is roughly 0.7 acres and shaped like a trapezoid. One side faces 17th Street, and another faces the dead end part of Rose Street. Right now, it’s got grass that is being mowed periodically. What we’re hoping to do is fence off the back 3/4 of the lot for dogs to play, leaving the part that faces 17th Street open for residents, dogs on leash and visitors to sit and relax in the shadow of one of Michigan’s most historic buildings.

If you come to Detroit SOUP on Sunday (doors open at 6:30 p.m., 2900 E. Grand Blvd, Detroit), you’ll learn more about our plans. You’ll donate $5 for a light dinner and have a chance to vote for us to win a portion of that $5 that will let us spread our Kickstarter funds a little more widely around the park.

More pix to come, but here’s a glimpse of what will become Detroit Dog Park.

Here’s our park – Macomb Playlot. Check out our plans and imagine what the park will look like.

This has been an amazing week for us at Detroit Dog Park and we have you to thank. First, we got approval for our site! Then, media! Now, a chance to win hundreds of dollars to build. READ ON!

On Monday, we woke up with less than $5,000 in pledges for Kickstarter. We were a little nervous. We thought we had a good idea, and really felt we’d explained it well. But we’d hit a lull in donations. It was troubling.

Later that afternoon, we learned that our application had been accepted by the city of Detroit’s General Services Department to build the dog park at Macomb Playlot in the Corktown neighborhood of Detroit!!!, near the old train station. That’s right! We have a site now, and we cannot wait to start building on it! Pix to come.

On Tuesday, we woke up to a story about us in the Detroit Free Press. And the internet took over. Nearly 1,500 people recommended the Free Press story. Other news outlets started calling. Our link was shared on FB dozens of times. And, by the end of the week, we’d been mentioned on Channel 4, TV20, WWJ, the Detroit News, Curbed Detroit, Huff Post and Deadline Detroit. Our Board Chair, Carly Mys, was exhausted.

But it’s been amazing. Today, we have more than $10,000 in donations from all over the US and a couple of international places. We have 10 days to go, and less than $5,000 to raise to meet our goal. And on Sunday, we will be among the four groups presenting the dog park to Detroit SOUP, a fundraising dinner in which participants listen to pitches and vote on the idea they think is best – best for Detroit, best for its people, and best for themselves.

If you can join us on Sunday at 6:30 (proposals start at 7:30) at 2900 E. Grand Blvd., that would be awesome. If you can donate (see the Kickstarter button to the right), that would be more awesome. If you could both, holy crap how we would love you! Thank you!

https://www.facebook.com/events/386402884778277/

Take a look at some proposed designs for Detroit Dog Park. As we move forward, we’ll have community meetings for your input and feedback. In the meantime, let us know what you think and remember, this is a design in progress. Thanks!

Less than a week into our Kickstarter campaign, and we’re already at $2,700. This makes us so happy, thankful and proud of our community – and the Kickstarter community – for pitching in to help us build this park.

In exchange for your donation, we can offer you some pretty cool pieces of Detroit’s history. Check it out!

Ashtrays – In Detroit’s Madmen era, no business went without branded ashtrays. These are slightly larger than your palm, and can hold any number of cool things if you don’t smoke. A 1950′s/1960′s classic. We have two.

Ticket stubs – In Detroit’s heyday, as the car was fueling our growth, people still relied on trains to get to Point B when Point A was hundreds of miles away. These are stamped ticket stubs from the 1920′s to destinations around the MIdwest and Canada. We have tons.

Dog tags – As Motown met funk in the 1970′s, Detroiters who registered their dogs with the city got these nifty dog-house shaped licenses. Put ‘em on your pup, wear them as a necklace, turn them into a keychain. The possibilities are endless.

http://kck.st/RJAFpq to learn more, or to donate. Thanks!

Here are a few of the vintage Detroit rewards from our Kickstarter campaign. Help us raise $15,000! Get a piece of Detroit history while helping fund its future.

It’s finally time!

Detroit Dog Park has launched a campaign through Kickstarter.com to raise more than $15,000 to seed Detroit’s first official off-leash dog park. Kickstarter is community-based fundraising that allows you, our future park users and your friends and family, to give a little and watch it go a long way.

Since we can’t offer you a tax deduction, some of our friends and supporters have teamed up to offer you rewards for your donation – everything from vintage Detroit memorabilia to engraved bricks.

We know you’re anxious to hear where we’re going to be. And just as soon as we’ve finalized our agreement, we’ll let you know. But for now, we need your help. We need your commitment. We need your support.

Visit http://kck.st/RJAFpq and throw us a bone or two.

Hit us up if you have any questions. We can’t wait to have you run with the pack!

Hi! Thanks for visiting. This page is under construction, so please be patient while we liven it up!

We are DETROIT DOG PARK, a group of Detroit area residents who want to build an off-leash park for people and their dogs within Detroit city limits.

Our idea is pretty simple. There’s a lot of vacant and unused land in Detroit. There are a lot of people with dogs in Detroit. We want to bring those worlds together. We want to build community, both between dog owners and between park users and the community in which we’re located. We want to create. We want to transform. We want to play.

How we got here:

In June 2011, the idea of a dog park started percolating between local businessfolk and dog owners. A survey was sent out. Information gathered. We learned what people wanted and what they didn’t. We started looking for the perfect site.

Many. Months. Later.

We’ve identified a key location, and are working hard to finalize an agreement to use it. A main committee meets regularly and we note our progress. Meanwhile, we host a monthly Dog Party at the old Detroit Tigers stadium at Michigan Avenue and Trumbull Street.

We’re gathering volunteers, who can help us do everything from data entry to construction. That’s where you come in.  With every week, we get closer to making this park a reality. We need your help, both physically and financially. If you have a dog, and can envision Fido running free, playing with other dogs and coming home completely exhausted and happy, you’re one of us. If you are friends with dog-people, you’re one of us. If you want to see changes to Detroit that add value, beauty and spark community, you’re one of us. Like us on Facebook, sign up for blog updates, come to our periodic large group meetings, and start telling your friends all about us. Thank you.

Detroit Dog Park: Barking up a park in the Motor City.