ENFIELD, CT – The Enfield Dog Park Action Committee hosted their Dog Nail Trim event on April 17. They partnered with All 4 Paws Pet Care, a local in-home veterinary technician service that provides pet sitting, nail trims, ear cleanings, teeth brushing, sanitary clips, dietary management and hospice care. All 4 Paws offered to discount their services by 25 percent, and donated 50 percent of the profits to the Enfield Dog Park.

“This is our first time partnering with the Enfield Dog Park,” said All 4 Paws Owner Pat Tramontana. “We’ve heard it’s been a very good event every year and it’s for a great cause as well, so we just wanted to be a part of. The hope is to bring a cleaner park to dogs not only in Enfield, but to every town in Connecticut. We’re going to try to do this as much as we can to raise money for the dog park.”

The Enfield Dog Park Action Committee is the board of directors that oversee the operation of the dog park in Enfield. President Karen Pugliese said in 2007 Founder Rob Stefanik approached the Enfield Town Council about opening a dog park in Enfield. The hope was for it to be a place where dogs could safely run, exercise and socialize in a secured off leash area. Essentially, he was told to form a committee, do the planning work, and come back to the council with a proposal.

Stefanik put out a press release asking if people were interested and wanted to join the committee. There were over 100 people at the first meeting. The result was the formation of the Enfield Dog Park Action Committee, which is now a registered nonprofit tasked with the upkeep and maintenance of the Enfield Dog Park.

The Town of Enfield does not own, run or maintain the park. The Enfield Dog Park Action Committee relies solely on fundraising efforts, donations and corporate sponsorships.

At this time, the committee needs funds and support for ongoing park maintenance. Last year, their biggest fundraiser, “Puppy Pride,” was canceled because of the pandemic. The park also suffered damages due to Hurricane Isaias and was closed down for several months. Fundraising & Events Chairperson Robert Marshall told Reminder Publishing the hurricane took down most of the trees inside the dog park, the fences were ruined and benches were torn out of the ground. The park has enough fundraisers to cover operating costs, but doesn’t have a large reserve fund for disasters such as Isaias, or for larger improvements such as an additional gazebo for shade.

“I took over as fundraising chair in the past two months. I did so after working on a day of service project with the committee,” Marshall said. “I saw a definite need for fundraising because the park did not have any rainy-day funds. It is a self-funded dog park and their fundraising efforts were pretty much around park and maintenance.”

He went on to say, “After the super storm that came through and wiped out the park, the committee didn’t have the funds to rebuild. I stepped in and decided that we should have more fundraisers to do park improvements and to have a rainy-day fund for any disasters that may happen again.”

Marshall mentioned that a large corporate sponsor stepped in and bought a gazebo for one side of the dog park. This year, he would like to be able purchase a second gazebo for the other side, and future wishes are running water up from the road to the park, and any other type of fitness equipment that the committee would like to purchase later on.

The Action Committee will have another Dog Nail Trim event on May 15 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Residents can donate through their website at the enfielddogpark.org.  Their Puppy Pride event is scheduled for Oct. 16 where they are currently looking for vendors that want to participate as well as advertisers for their program and website and anyone that wants to donate raffle prizes. For those interested, contact Robert Marshall at enfielddogparkevents@gmail.com to reserve their booth space, advertise with them or make a raffle donation.

There will also be a Meet the Mayor event at the dog park on July 17. The committee is encouraging folks to dress up their canine candidates and promote their dogs’ campaigns for “Mayor” or “Deputy Mayor” of the dog park on Facebook and Instagram to garner more votes. The winners of the campaign will have a reserved parking spot at the dog park with their dog’s name on it. The Inauguration ceremonies for the winning canines are set for Aug. 28. To participate, interested parties should email their dogs’ picture, biography and slogan to Karen Pugliese at enfielddogpark@gmail.com.