It’s time for all Yakima dog lovers to sit (or stand) and speak (electronically, that is) to help Yakima win $100,000 for a planned dog park by becoming the “Top Dog” in an online contest appropriately named “Bark for Your Park”.
To earn the Top Dog distinction and win the grand prize, which would be used to help build a dog park on about an acre of property at Randall Park, Yakima first needs to become a Bark for Your Park finalist. To do that, Yakima will have to be among the top fifteen vote getters during the first round of voting, which runs until June 13th.
To vote, go to either the PetSafe website at http://www.petsafe.net/barkforyourpark/ or the PetSafe Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/PetSafeBrand/app_321086731284099. Voters are allowed to submit one vote per day on both the website and the Facebook page.
If Yakima is named a finalist, it will be placed into one of three categories, which will be based on the populations of the finalist cities, for the second round of voting. The finalist voting round will run from June 20th through July 31st.
The top overall vote getter among the finalists during the second round of voting will be named Top Dog and will be awarded the $100,000 grand prize. Runner-up awards of $25,000 will be presented to the top vote getters in each of the population categories, with the exception of the category from which the grand prize winner comes. In that category, the finalist who got the second most votes will get the runner-up prize. A fourth runner-up prize will be given to the finalist who received the highest percentage of votes when compared to its population.
“This is a great way for everybody to chip in to help build the Yakima dog park,” said Recreation Supervisor Traci Bennett. “If we all vote once a day on the website and once a day on the Facebook page, I’m confident we’ll make it into the finals. Invite your family, friends, coworkers, anybody you know, to vote,” said Bennett. “You need to Bark for Your Park.”
PetSafe, a pet products company based in Knoxville, Tennessee, started the “Bark for Your Park” contest in 2011 because of the success of a public dog park it built near its headquarters. The park had become a popular gathering spot in Knoxville and PetSafe wanted to help other communities benefit from building dog parks. Every year since then, PetSafe has sponsored the contest.
For more information about Bark for Your Park, visit the PetSafe website at http://www.petsafe.net/.