LIHUE — Dog Fanciers of Kauai President Cristy Peeren knew she and other members had to do something when she heard two entry gates recently installed for a dog park at Wailua Homesteads Park were purloined several days ago.
“We have some members who are on that committee that has been working on the dog park for three years, so I was appalled at the thought of this all coming to a halt just because someone took away their gates after it was just put up,” Peeren said on Wednesday.
She immediately called the nonprofit’s treasurer, along with other board members, to find if they could help.
And the answer, it turned out, was simple.
Yes.
“It was a pretty easy decision for everybody,” Peeren said. “It’s really important to our club that owners enjoy the companionship of our dogs — that’s really our mission. We just felt this was a really important event to happen for the community, and soon, because they’ve been working really hard.”
Although the Dog Fanciers of Kauai is known for its obedience classes and agility training course, those who have pushed for a dog park say the group can add another class to that list: how to be a good Samaritan.
“We’re so excited the club wants to do it,” said Wailua Homesteads resident Rene Tokuda, who along with her husband, Tommy, helped spearhead community efforts on the dog park for more than three years.
The $400 donation from the Dog Fanciers of Kauai, Tokuda said, will be picked up today, allowing work on the new gates to begin almost immediately.
Those gates, she said, should be finished by Friday.
But that hasn’t stopped the phone calls and emails from coming in.
“I’m just near blown away by the phone calls and the emails we’ve received,” Tokuda said. “It’s unbelievable. People are emailing and calling from all over.”
Ever since The Garden Island first reported the theft on Tuesday, followed by television coverage from local CBS/NBC-affiliate Hawaii News Now, community dog park volunteer Donna Pickard of Wailua Homesteads said she has received over 100 emails offering monetary support for the park even after the fences are installed. The theft occurred either Sunday night or early Monday morning and is under investigation.
“We started off the new year with a bad thing happening, but things have completely turned around in a second and has given us new faith in humanity,” Pickard said on Wednesday.
Through it all, Peeren said the group simply wanted to lend a helping hand.
“We just really felt it was important to do,” Peeren said. “The Wailua community has been needing a dog park for a while and I know it’s hard for them all to drive into the Kauai Humane Society all the time. For us, we just saw someone in our dog community that really needed our help.”
• Darin Moriki, county government reporter, can be reached at 245-0428 or dmoriki@thegardenisland.com. Follow him on Twitter at @darinmoriki.
