Late Tuesday afternoon (June 30), Burien Parks hosted a reception at the Community Center to honor donors and announce new sponsors of the Dog Park Project at Lakeview Park.

At the dog-friendly event, major sponsorships were announced – to the tune of $30,000 barked up:

  • $20,000 from Beneful, a dog food company
  • $10,000 from Burien Chevrolet & Burien Toyota

This follows a $15,000 fundraising effort from the B-Town DOG volunteers, as well as $15,000 in matching funds from the City of Burien, for a grand total of $60,000 raised for the new park.

As many of our Readers may recall, in 2013 Beneful sponsored a “Dream Dog Park” contest, in which B-Town DOG’s Kellie Bassen and her pooch Bailey were one of 14 finalists for a $500,000 prize. Unfortunately, they didn’t win, so this donation was an excellent consolation prize.

Here’s the video entry Kellie submitted about a pirate-themed dog park idea:

YouTube player

“Beneful remembered the video and flew out to award us $20k for our dog park!!!!” Kellie said on Facebook. “They loved our pirate video! They did a pirate presentation for us. Also, Burien Toyota (Center of the Known World) came and presented a check for 10k!! I’m just speechless, and so full of gratitude.”

The new Dog Park will be built at Lakeview Park, located at SW 160th Street and 6th Ave SW. This property was donated by Highline Public Schools.

Pro-bono design work of the park was done by theLAStudio LLC, an architectural/design firm.

“We’ve been inspired by the hard work of the local dog park supporters and want to lend a paw in helping the community with their project,” a spokesperson for Beneful said.

The event was hosted by Parks Development and Operations Manager Steve Roemer, and Councilmember Nancy Tosta also spoke.

Roemer will do a presentation to the Burien City Council on July 20, with the hopes of moving up the construction of the dog park, which is currently slated for 2017.

Since 2007, The B-Town Blog is Burien’s multiple award-winning hyperlocal news/events website dedicated to independent journalism.

11 replies on “Two sponsors bark up $30,000 for new Burien Dog Park at Tuesday unveiling”

  1. Yay! I’m so proud of all of those that have worked so hard to make this happen (one bake sale at a time). Woof Woof!

  2. Hooray for Burien Toyota and Dean and Mona Anderson! Hooray for Beneful! Hooray for Burien! This is a great idea and great for the city.

  3. We can get 30K together for a park that is just for dogs but we won’t even consider expanding social services for many of Burien’s homeless. Good job Sunnydale! And these same folk will probably call the cops if the local homeless try to sleep there, too. How much you want to bet?

    1. Seattle likes to reward bad decision makers. You can leave anytime, Burien is not holding you hostage.

  4. I’m just sorry I missed the “unveling.” My husband and I helped out on this project some and are disappointed we didn’t get to take part in the fun. But, SUPER happy to see such great sponsorship! A lot of good people did a lot of tiresome work to get us closer to this Dog Park. They are ALL to be congratulated.
    To odubya23: I can tell you that this group of folks are not only dedicated to their animals, but to their fellow human beings, as well. Especially, the neighbors around this part of Lakewood Park. They are very happy to see the trash, overgrown blackberry bushes, broken beer bottles, condoms and syringes taken away from where their children spend their play time. Anyone of us can take on a cause, fight for it, practice due diligence, go to the city council and parks and recs board, submit applications. proposals and license requests, pound the sidewalk, hold bakesales and rummage sales in the pouring rain, sponsor walk-a-thons and whatever else it takes to get what we consider important to happen in our little place in the world. If you want to advocate for the homeless and adopt them as your cause, then strap on your “make that your mission” boots and go for it!

  5. The park has a kids play area, a walking path, picnic tables and is fenced. What construction is needed? And for $30,000? Maybe it is to take out the children’s play area that the local daycare providers use.

    1. There are no plans to take anything out of Lakeview park. The area is the upper northwest end, where the old Lakeview school building was, It is currently not used and has become a receptacle for bottles and drug paraphernalia.

  6. The Anderson family (Burien Toyota) are such great supporters of our community. Many thanks!

  7. WOOF! This is such great news!
    Question – Is the play area being removed?
    That is a really nice set up for the kids. If they are removing it, they should reinstall it at Lake Burien Park. The play area there is showing its age.

  8. B-Town Dog Rocks! Thanks to the Andersons, Beneful, and LA Studio for helping to make this happen. For those asking, the Dog Park will be located in the upper area of the park where the school building was located, The lower area where the playtoy and field is will remain the same.

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