A $500K Dog Park in Paulding?

Fido could soon have a fine place to play in Paulding if a Hiram resident can pull enough online votes.

Katrina Parker is one of twelve finalists in the 2012 Beneful Dream Dog Park Contest that invited dog owners across the country to answer the question: If you had $500,000 to create a Dream Dog Park where you and your best buddy can play together, what would you do?

Hundreds of dog owners entered the third-annual contest, according to a news release, and the entry from Parker and her dog Faith were among the 12 selected as finalists. Now Parker has a chance to win the grand prize, which includes $10,000 in cash, a one-year supply of Beneful brand dog food and the opportunity to have her ideas serve as an inspiration for a $500,000 makeover of an area dog park.

Once selected as a finalist, Parker was asked to create, narrate and submit a video up to two minutes in length showing her daily adventures together with Faith at the dog park and how they would make it even better if given the opportunity to inspire a dream dog park.

Faith passed away in April of this year, and Parker’s video entry describes her vision of a heaven for dogs. Her vision became her dream dog park, “Sweetland,” which would feature obstacle courses where the obstacles are shaped like sweet treats, a track made of wood chips where owners and their pets can walk and run together, and a “human-sized doghouse” with restrooms, drinking fountains and seating.

“Faith was the sweetest, most gentle dog ever. After she passed this April, I began to ponder a heaven for dogs and how it might look. My mom suggested that if dogs don’t go to heaven, surely they go to ‘Sweetland,’” Parker said in her video entry. “I wouldn’t get to play with Faith here, but it’s the next best thing—I get to honor her memory, and bond with her brother, Heaven.”

You can see Katrina Parker’s full entry and vote for it at this link. The video portion of her entry is attached to this article.

Online voting at this link will count for 20 percent of the score to determine the grand prize winner. Parker’s entry and the entries of her fellow finalists can be viewed and voted on through Nov. 7.

The remainder of the score to determine the winner will come from the judges of the Beneful Dream Team: Eric Stonestreet, dog lover and Emmy Award-winning actor on the hit TV show Modern Family; Jason Cameron, licensed contractor and host of DIY’s Desperate Landscapes, who manages the renovation; and pet expert Arden Moore, who oversees the renovation from the dog’s point of view.

The contest winner will be announced in November, with the third Beneful Dream Dog Park slated to be unveiled in early summer 2013.

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