Friday, 4/30/10 [4:30p] - Dear Friends & Supporters;
Today marks a very
joyful milestone in the timeline of the project, as this morning the
fountain unit was delivered to Kroll Dog Park and handed off to the City
of Bakersfield's Parks & Recreation Dept. Upon receipt of the unit,
installation promptly began, and is continuing at this time. If all
goes well, the fountain may be operational before the end of the day
today!
This is a pretty special accomplishment: through the benevolent
efforts of our amazing supporters, donors, volunteers, local business',
the City of Bakersfield, the local media, and the community itself, a
wonderful improvement is finally a reality at a very popular and heavily
utilized dog park.
Finally, everyone can kiss the
"bucket brigade" goodbye! Trucking in heavy pails of water from outside
the dog park, while a labor of love, was not a suitable method to give
thirsty pooches a drink! They were difficult, or even impossible for
some patrons to lift & carry, were subject to contamination &
tampering, and regularly vandalized or even stolen altogether. Mighty
inconvenient, and downright unsafe at times. Plus, easy access to clean
drinking water seems like such a basic necessity, it almost seemed
criminal to *not* have this kind of solution in place! With the new
permanent fountain, pooches *and* people will be able to cleanly quench
their thirst with ease and convenience, and best of all, without ever
having to leave the safety of the secure dog park zone.
Please note that a
commemorative plaque has been donated to be affixed to the fountain, but
will take a few weeks to fabricate and become installed. We're hoping
that once the plaque is ready, there can be a special event scheduled
which everyone may attend at the dog park to officially dedicate the
fountain. Once more details emerge, they will be announced on this website and also on the Twitter page at www.Twitter.com/ThirstyKrollDog
so please subscribe to these online feeds and check back often.
In the meantime, let us
thank each and every one of you and recognize that none of this would be
possible without everyone's individual and financial support! It's very
gratifying to see the love and labor that came together to make this
project happen.
If you're in the neighborhood, please stop by and check out the new
fountain when you can. And if you can't, there are plenty of pictures
that can be viewed by clicking over to TwitPic
and TweetPhoto
-- We will continue to update
and add pictures, so please visit the sites regularly.
Hope to see all of you and your canine companions at Kroll Dog Park
soon -- and be sure to come thirsty!
Thanks again, everyone, and give yourselves one big "Atta-boy" (or girl) pat on the back!
Wednesday, 4/28/10 [9:30a] - So much happening these past few days, it's been difficult to keep updated. We've been capturing many pictures of the fountain's site in-progress, and the best way to view them quickly is to jump on over to our Twitter page, and read through the update entries. You can go there now by clicking here: www.Twitter.com/thirstykrolldog
Wednesday, 4/21/10 [12:30p] - *** EXCITING NEWS *** >>>> The fountain fixture has been purchased and will be arriving in Bakersfield around April 29th!!! With this fantastic news, we've been in contact with the Parks Dept., and they in-turn have pledged to begin immediate procedures at Kroll Dog Park to prepare the site for the fountain's installation. It's expected that visible signs of the upcoming construction should become apparent within a matter of days. There's still much work to be done, including trenching, foundation assessment, laying of water pipes and drain lines, cement pour for foundation, etc. But at this time we're very optimistic that there should be a fully-functioning fountain in operation at Kroll by or before the next 30 days from today! Although things may have appeared silent here at ThirstyKrollDogs.com for the past weeks and months, we assure you that all of us have been very busy behind the scenes preparing for the fountain's arrival at its future home!
Tuesday, 1/26/10 [5:45p] - We're absolutely in the home stretch! Amazing progress is being made as this project moves along nicely. We were fortunate enough to have a follow-up report featured on tonight's edition of 23 News on KERO/ABC-23 TV. View report here. There are still a few significant donations outstanding that were previously pledged late last year. If you were one of those, we would greatly appreciate your sending your pledged amount in as soon as possible so we may proceed with ordering the park fountain. We greatly appreciate all the fabulous support, and again, thank all of you for helping to make this goal a reality! We're still in need of a little bit more, so if you haven't made your contribution yet, we'd love to hear from you!
Monday, 12/14/09 [1:45p] - Howl-a-lujeh!!! As unbelievable as it might seem, we are now actually at 81.37% to goal! And that is courtesy of the HAWS Company and their remarkable distributor partners who have kindly arranged for the 3500-D fountain to be purchased BELOW wholesale, and below cost at a special reduced price of $2,899.00!!! And they've even offered to cover the freight/shipping costs as well! This is a delightful development that directly results in a savings of almost $2,000.00 over the original estimated cost of $4,800.00! And that's $2,000.00 less that has to be raised, and represents an incredible savings to our fabulous community! And that means at this time we're only in need of just under $600.00 to finalize our fundraising efforts and be able to purchase the drinking fountain!!!
Sunday, 12/13/09 [10:30a] - Celebration Time: Today we hit the 60% to Goal mark!!! If you haven't made a contribution yet, or have pledged to but haven't submitted it yet, *please* send it in today! Now that we're well over the halfway mark in just over two months, hopefully we can drum up the remaining outstanding amount ($1,560.00) in the next 30 days, or less! Thanks again to our amazing supporters, and may you all enjoy a wonderful & happy holiday season!
Monday, 11/30/09 [8:00p] - More GREAT NEWS!!! Thanks to the efforts of our supporters, we can once again revise the total amount needed to be raised downwards. This is a direct result of a new course of action by which we can purchase the fountain directly (and not through the City or its Foundation) as a private party. Once the purchase is completed, we may then donate the fountain itself in its entirety to the Foundation (versus the previous plan of having to donate the funds to the City via the Foundation.) Thanks to cooperation from the City's Parks Dept., the dept. has agreed to allow this option, which will reduce the cost of the fountain to approximately $3,900.00 (from the previous estimate of $4,800.00). Once we reach $3,900.00 in donations, we will then arrange to purchase the fountain locally through a private supplier. This new arrangement will result in an additional $900.00+ cost savings! And as such, we will now be revising the total amount needing to be raised by that same amount!
Saturday, 11/21/09 [8:30a] - GREAT NEWS!!! We have the joy and pleasure to announce that the previous amount needing to be raised (which was $6,000.00) has now been revised downward to $4,999.99. This is directly due to the extreme generosity of a local businessperson's certified pledge of a minimum of $1,000.00 which will arrive in mid to late January. This contribution will be made directly from the contributor's business to the Bakersfield Foundation, and will be specifically earmarked towards the city's labor and materials costs for the fountain's installation (which is projected to be just around $1,000.00--you may click this
link for project cost details & estimates.) This is a tremendous WIN for our community, and will allow us to reach the newly revised goal amount much more quickly!
Saturday, 11/21/09 [8:00a] - Hopefully by now you've seen on our home page, or received notification by email, flyer, or other means that our very first fundraising event has been scheduled---and it should be one that anyone and everyone can enjoy, and feel great about participating in! The event will be held at
Plumberry's restaurant on Stockdale Hwy. @ Allen Rd. on Tuesday, December 1st, and will run from 4:00pm to 9:00pm. And the best part of all: all you need to do to help, is to show up, purchase some tasty food for you and your family or friends, and 20% of your purchase will be contributed to our program! Plumberry's is graciously allowing those who bring in the
event flyer to use it on dine-in, carry-out, and even on delivery (if you're lucky enough to be in their delivery territory!) So please mark your calendars, and tell all your friends that we hope to see them there and have a great time kicking off December and the holiday season of giving while enjoying great food and helping a wonderful cause---all at the same time! See you there!
Monday, 11/09/09 [4:30p] - Just received confirmation from the Bakersfield Californian newspaper that a story featuring our project has posted online, and is scheduled to appear in tomorrow's print edition! We'll post a link to this story on the "misc. / add'l info" page of this website in the Media Links area. Or, you can just click here: http://bit.ly/1ooZ6q
A big Thank You to the Bakersfield Californian for a terrific story and helping to spread the word about this amazing undertaking!
Monday, 11/09/09 [3:00p] - Today while at Kroll Dog Park, we had the unusual displeasure of having our intentions, integrity, and motivation called into question by a very critical fellow dog-park visitor. This individual was displeased with not only our efforts, but the methods and manners in which we've conducted ourselves in our mission to enlist donations and other assistance in reaching our goals with this initiative. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion and viewpoint, and the right to publicly express them to us and others while in a public place such as Kroll Dog Park. Let us be perfectly clear about our mission with this initiative: Our sole purpose for this project is to help raise funds for the doggie water fountain and then convey those funds to the city for completion and installation--that's all. We are *not* a non-profit entity, and have never claimed such. That's the purpose and function of the City's foundation/501(c)3 non-profit arm, which is the entity which will ultimately receive all contributor's funds from us. Yes, we are a for-profit business, and one that cares deeply for all pets--obviously, as that is our business. Our team members perform untold amazing acts of volunteerism, pro-bono work, fundraising, and other charitable acts which all benefit pets, owners, families, and more, most of which are never reported or publicized. If in supporting all our efforts to secure a doggie drinking fountain, the local media selects to cover these events, and the business should also be featured or highlighted, that is their prerogative. Yes, such coverage might also promote our company, and that's a nice acknowledgment, but its not the reason we're driving this initiative to completion. We simply would like a water-fountain installed inside Kroll Dog Park. For use by our dogs, your dogs, our client's dogs, & everybody's dogs that play in the dog park! We also believe in giving credit where credit is due. Without the fabulous donors and sponsors we've had the joy of being supported by, none of this could ever happen. Those who've contributed in any way are featured right here on this website for everyone to give kudos to! So while some of you out there have your reservations, doubts, and in some cases, a resentment so strong that it drives you to wish for failure of this project and perhaps even our company, it is that very kind of response that motivates us even more greatly to succeed and drives us to perform. Many, many kind Stockdale area pet owners (who are Kroll neighbors) & who also utilize Kroll Dog Park are long-time clients and supporters of ours, and see & understand the great vision of this project, understand our role in it, and are very happy with how things are going. Perhaps we're doing something right after all...
Saturday, 10/24/09 [7:00a] - Our thoughts and prayers go out to a dear friend of Kroll Dog Park, Ms. Sherri Powell, who lost her precious Yorkie, Lexie Lu earlier this week in a terrible dog mauling incident at the dog park (a pit bull mix turned & suddenly attacked Lexie Lu without warning or provocation right before her owner's eyes.) Everyone is shocked and devastated, and even outraged that such a thing could happen, and all our hearts go out to Sherri during this sad and painful time. We do hope that something like this never happens again, and we send Sherri lots of warmth and comfort to help her get through these rough days.
Monday, 10/12/09 [6:00p] - Added new category to the misc. / add'l info page -- "Media Links: Thirsty Kroll Dogs in the news". A big Thank You from all of us to our local media teams for their terrific coverage and support for our very important cause!
Friday, 10/9/09 [5:45p] - Fixed a couple of broken links (pointed to incorrect destinations.) Added 4 photos of the existing doggie drinking fountain at University Park to the misc. / add'l info page.
Thursday, 10/8/09 [8:45p] - Relocated the Donor names data from the misc. / add'l info. page to the donation info. page. Reformatted the misc. / add'l info page to better reflect its content & purpose. Also updated the donor names list and contribution totals.
Thursday, 10/8/09 [7:45p] - Uploaded PDF of the Bakersfield Foundation's brochure, and created links to it from the Q&A area of the misc. / add'l info page.
Wednesday, 10/7/09 [2:00p] - Added several donor names to list on misc. / add'l info. page.
Tuesday, 10/6/09 [10:00a] - Added link to PDF of diagram of the HAWS 3500D Drinking Fountain, added product description of fountain, and added a link to a summary breakdown of projected costs to misc. / add'l info page.
Monday, 10/5/09 [8:00p] - Added additional page, "misc. / add'l info". Relocated Additional Resources, and Events & Links from the Donation info. page to new page.
Added new links, fixed a couple of broken links that pointed incorrectly, and added an image of an actual drinking fountain similar to the one requested at Kroll Dog Park.
Added new section to "misc / add'l info" page to acknowledge contributors/donors.
Contributors that provide authorization may have their names (or the name of their business) listed there.
Re-titled some of the page links to more accurately reflect their content.
Monday, 10/5/09 [6:15p] - Per request of several fellow park-goers, we've added links (on the Donations page) to PDF flyers that may be printed out & distributed, or emailed as attachments.
Saturday, 10/3/09 [4:35p] - Completed creation of a dedicated Twitter site: www.Twitter.com/ThirstyKrollDog and added links & buttons to this site. Also updated the totals (rec'd more donations today--yay!) and made a few tweaks and adjustments (mostly cleanup work, and spelling corrections, etc.) In addition to today's donations, we're also receiving nice emails of support and encouragement, which we greatly appreciate!
Saturday, 10/3/09 [9:35a] - We added links to this website on www.KernPet.com--on the Event Calendar, and also the Local Resources sections.
Friday, 10/2/09 [pm] - Just realized that in order to accept credit-card donations online, Paypal charges various extra fees for these particular transaction types! While not the best news, it makes sense to allow them, because for some folks, it may be the only way they pay for things, and its very convenient. But now that we know about the extra processing fees, we will ask that if possible, it's preferred that contributors try to make their donations from a PayPal account that is linked to their checking or savings and only use a credit card as a last resort if they have no other option--Thank You!
Friday, 10/2/09 [pm] - Just returned from Kroll Dog Park, where we hung up four double-sided laminated flyers to announce the official beginning of the movement to obtain funding for the future water fountain! Also ran into a handful of visitors with their doggies in-tow, so we made it a point to verbally share with everyone there the need for the community's help to get this project underway!
Friday, 10/2/09 [am] - Whew! Busy day! The creative juices continue to flow. We made up some nice colorful flyers to hand out at Kroll Park to let everyone know about the site.
Friday, 10/2/09 [am] - Created an online classified ad on Craigslist announcing this site.
Friday, 10/2/09 [am] - Just sent out a Tweet via the Fetch Twitter account announcing the new site.
Friday, 10/2/09 [am] - Received our first three donations before noon today! Wow that was fast!!! We now have $75.00 in the account -- not bad for a morning's work. A BIG Thank You to our founding contributors!
Friday, 10/2/09 [am] - Sent out a mass email to friends, family, clients, and colleagues announcing this web site and the message about the need for the water fountain @ Kroll.
Friday, 10/2/09 [am] - Completed testing of the Paypal donation link -- looks like it works!
Thursday, 10/1/09 [pm] - Following this week's water line vandalism at Kroll Dog Park, and at the urging of many, many Kroll Dog Park visitors, we at Fetch! Pet Care have opted to help take up the cause for a new water fountain by creating this web site to maintain a centralized place to collect donations, dispense information, and assist in the initiative to get the fountain installed. Though the site is nothing great, we're quite proud of ourselves--none of us has ever created a web site or done any web programming of any kind before! (No geek-squads here--we did this totally on our own!) This is quite an accomplishment for all of us! Probably will remain a work-in-progress for a while, but please look around, enjoy, and most important, donate and spread the word!!! The site went "live" around 8:00 PM Thursday night. Yay!
This website lovingly donated & sponsored by the staff & team at:
Fetch! Pet Care of the Golden Empire
9530 Hageman Rd., Suite B-284
Bakersfield, CA 93312
888-KERN-PET
ge@FetchPetCare.com
