We were told last week that the city manager and city council was meeting to decide on one of the dog park sites we proposed!  We were so happy to hear this!   Because the meeting happened yesterday  evening (Tuesday) we decided to put off our May 8th meeting tonight until another time.  Mrs. Lacroix asked us if we wanted to go to this city meeting, and most of us did want to see what it was going to be like at the City Counsel meeting.  The meeting started at 7pm.

Mrs. Lacroix treated us to pizza and soda before the meeting.  We really liked this part!  We each got to take some leftovers home.

We couldn't wait to split the 3 pizzas.

We had our T shirts on.  Together, we marched all the way to the City Hall.  We were nervous, too.  We found the City Counsel chambers (room) on the 3rd floor.

There were over 40 people at the meeting supporting our idea...They also to see what would become of our idea for a dog park!  We were very proud and happy to see that other grown ups in the city liked our plans for a park.  The city mayor, council members, and Steve Buck were excited about having a dog park, too!  They were not against our project.   At the end of the meeting, it was decided the Armory site plan we found needs to go back to the property subcommittee to increase the size from 1/3 of an acre.  We liked to hear about the dog park, but other parts of the meeting were confusing and kind of boring. We might go to another meeting soon!

We are going to have a meeting on the 8th of this month! The meeting is going to be at the Goodall Library in the meeting room. The meeting will start at 6:00 pm. We would love it if you come to this meeting. Things we are going to talk about include: creating rules for the dog park, Discussion around fencing, Fundraising Brainstorm, Participating in Memorial Day Parade, and bring ideas you want to discuss.

Today we walked down to Number One Pond to meet with Fran Libbey.  She has her own TV show on Metrocast.  Her show is called The Fran Show on channel 12.  Some of us were nervous about being on TV for the first time.  We can't wait to watch it on TV in two weeks.  We hope our show influences the city government and the community to act on getting this dog park.

This has been a big month for us. We have been in two newspapers! At first we were really scared and didn't know what it was going to be like, but now we have confidence in ourselves. The first newspaper we were in was Journal Tribune and the second one we were in was the Sanford News. This is a piece of cake, bring on some harder things! After the newspapers interviews we had to write reflectionsa.

This morning Mr. Sullivan of the Sanford News came to interview all of us.  After answering some reflection questions for Mrs. Lacroix last week to prepare us, we got a chance to share our project with him so he can share with everyone who reads the newspaper!  We found our voices and Mrs. Lacroix was very proud of us.  We hope to see our website in the newspaper.  We want more people to fill out our online survey, too.

Stay tuned because this is just our first chance to share the dog park project with the media!   We hope to be on a radio show and a TV show soon!

Today our project moved forward. Mrs. Lacroix went to a meeting with the property sub-committe to talk about three places we could put the dog park.Who came to the meeting? There were three City Councilors. Their names are Mr. Walsh, Mr. Burgess and Mr.Wilkins. The Parks and Rec Director is Mr. Blouin, and he was there, too.  Mr. Buck is the City Manager and his assistant Ms. Lord, and the Chief of Police, Mr. Connilly, sat around the table. Mr.Jacobsen, the executive director of Animal Welfare, and  Mrs. Adomaitis, the Dog Park Committee chairwoman attended.  The three places they are looking at are:  near #1 Pond, near the mills, and right off Shaw's Ridge Road. We think it's better when it's in the town because people can walk to it with their dog. Also it would be more safe because there are sidewalks so you and your dog can walk on. We are still hopeful that they will agree with us about how Sanford should have a dog park. T.T.

Six seventh and eighth graders went to the vocational center to look at the t-shirts as they are being printed.  They look great!  If you ordered a shirt you will be contacted.  There are only a few in stock so hurry up and order them!  They are perfect for Spring time.  Thanks SHS for making the shirts.

Three lucky seventh graders went to the vocational center to take their dog park logo design to the graphic arts department.  They got to watch and help a student (graduate of the ELL junior high program!) transfer their drawing to a digital picture to make a screen template.

An order will soon be placed for the T-Shirts.

If you would like to pre-order a shirt, please email:  [email protected]

Once the shirts arrive, students will return to the graphic arts room to screen print shirts.

Students watch a hand drawn image become a digital template.

Next they had to chose the perfect font style and style for the writing that will be printed on their shirts.




The T Shirts will help support the project and spread the word around town that a dog park is a great idea!

On Wednesday evening 2/6/13, 5 of us joined Mrs. Lacroix and the rest of the dog park committee at Goodall Library.  We wanted to show the adults that we cared about the dog park.  We are proud to have started this project.  Our supporters are growing! 
   
Dr. Cote has been trying to find a way to share some of her property on Shaw's Ridge to create a dog park. The next step will be to have folks meet with Mr. Buck and the property subcommittee. Please continue to spread the word about having a dog park.  Complete our interest survey!

We are looking into making T-shirts to advertise our project. We want to partner up with the Sanford Vocational Center's graphic arts students to watch and learn how it is done.  Look forward to purchasing and wearing a Sanford Maine Dog Park T-Shirt!

These are some of the questions we have had since we began our project last September.

We bet a lot of you have the same questions!

Our NEXT MEETING WILL BE ON WEDNESDAY EVENING AT 6PM ON FEBRUARY 6TH AT THE GOODALL LIBRARY IN SANFORD. 

We hope to see lots and lots of people there!
Please join us and pass the word!  Let's get our questions answered by working together.