Page 96 of Devoted Enough

“Me too,” Josh said with a wide smile.

“Doug, do you know who made the donations?” I asked.

“Yes. They reached out yesterday and wanted to donate in memory of their grandmother,a dog lover.”

Sophia’s hands went to her chest. “That is so sweet. What a wonderful idea.”

My mother turned and looked at Sophia and me. “What if you built a brick entrance into each dog park and gave people the option of buying a brick in a loved one’s name? It could even be in the name of a fur baby if they wanted?”

Looking at Doug, I asked, “Is that possible? The brick sidewalk?”

He nodded. “That’s a great idea. Do you have a website yet for the dog park?”

Josh answered, “We do. It’s live, but there isn’t much on it, just a few drawings of what the dog park will potentially look like.”

“I would make a section on the website for people who would like to buy a brick. While you’re at it, you can never have enough benches, so you could have people make donations for memorial benches as well.”

“You could even name the splash park in someone’s memory if they wanted to make a larger donation,” Mom added.

“That’s a great idea, Grace,” Nate stated. “You don’t have a name for the dog park yet, right?”

I shook my head. “Not yet.”

“What if you do a community event where they get to submit their name ideas, and you can pick a winner?” Nate said.

“That is a great idea!” I said as I felt another wave of excitement building. “We could do it at the community center and make it a family fun event where people can bring their pets.”

Doug pointed to me. “That’s a great idea. By getting the community involved, you’re giving yourself free marketing. Plus, if they feel like they were a part of the process, they will most likely be more connected to it, which means they’ll buy a membership.”

“Aunt Kaylee can help plan it. She used to do party planning,” Josh said as he and Nate exchanged looks. “And I bet Grams would love to be a part of it.”

“It would help her stay busy, which would be good,” Nate added.

Sophia took out her phone and started to type. “Okay, I’m thinking we do this sooner rather than later. The faster we have a name for the dog park, the faster we can get marketing done.”

“I agree, we should plan it soon. How long do you think it will take to plan something?”

Nate cleared his throat. “I can talk to Uncle Brock and see when the community center is available.”

I chewed on my lower lip as I thought about what we could do. “If we could get it before Christmas, maybe we can do a holiday-themed party. People can bring their dogs dressed up in holiday clothes.”

“That would be so fun!” Mom said as Sophia nodded.

“I’ll call him as soon as we’re done,” Nate said.

Doug cleared his throat. “I think all of this sounds great. Keep me updated on the plans. I can also get the word out. Let’s finish up with the short tour; then, we need to get started while we have the weather on our side.”

The last week had been a whirlwind. Chad had covered a few walks for me since I was busy helping Sophia and Kaylee with plans for the holiday party we were planning for the community to help name the dog park.

“I can’t believe Christmas is next week!” Sophia said as she set a box of decorations down in the middle of the large gym where we were holding the party.

“Have you and Josh put up a tree yet?” I asked as I worked on decorating the large tree we had bought for the party.

“We’re going tomorrow to pick one out. What about you and Nate?”

“I have a small artificial tree for my apartment, but I’m hardly there anymore, so I haven’t even decorated. We’ve put up some of Nate’s decorations, but haven’t gotten a tree yet.”

“You should come with me and Josh tomorrow,” Sophia said as she turned and looked at me with a wide smile. “We could make it a tradition of getting our trees at the same time!”

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