By Eric Mathison

It looks like Burien’s dogs will get their off-leash park a lot earlier than expected, thanks to the hard work of volunteers and the generosity of dog-loving businesses and individuals.

The Burien City Council is scheduled July 20 to discuss rearranging budget items to allow construction of the off-leash facility at Lakeview Park to begin this year instead of 2017.

When the city’s biennial budget was passed no one expected fundraising for the dog park to be so successful so fast. Raising funds for a worthy cause can be like trying to move a giant boulder up a hill. It’s terribly hard to get it rolling.

The park is located on land owned by the Highline School District at Southwest 160th Street and 6th Avenue Southwest. The off-leash facility will be on the upper part of the parcel. LAStudio LLC, a local architectural firm, donated the initial design work.

The park got a giant boost during a reception on June 30. Dean Anderson of Burien Toyota and Burien Chevrolet had earlier committed to sponsorship provided the B-Town Dog group could raise $15,000 from the public. Anderson’s wife presented a check for $10,000 from the two car dealerships.

The big surprise was an announcement by a team from Beneful dog food company, a division of Purina, that Beneful was donating $20,000.

Two years ago, B-Town Dog had been one of 14 finalists in a $500,000 “Dream Dog Park” nationwide competition. The local group put together a very creative pirate-themed video featuring Kellie Bassen and her dog Bailey. .

They didn’t win but as Kellie posted on Facebook after the June 30 reception, “Beneful remembered the video and flew out to award us $20K for our dog park!!!! They loved our pirate video! They did a pirate presentation for us. I’m just speechless, and so full of gratitude.”

This feel-good story actually began with a very sad event. Kellie and her husband were hit by a speeding car while in their own car and were both hurt badly. Two weeks earlier, Kellie had undergone hip surgery and they had acquired Bailey as a walking partner for Kellie.

The accident set back Kellie’s ability to exercise and she discovered off-leash facilities at Westcrest Park in White Center and Grandview Park in southeast SeaTac where Bailey could run free.

She started wondering why Burien didn’t have such a place.

“Then I wondered about people who couldn’t move well like me, who had dogs but couldn’t run them. THEN I thought about people who lived in apartments who had no yard. What a nice thing it would be for them. There are lots of apartments in Burien,” Kellie explained.

She called her city councilperson, Jack Block Jr.

“He said if I wanted one, I’d have to make it happen,” Kellie noted. “Friends got on board, I met Matt and Catherine (Wendland) and I met Rob (Johnson) who was so willing to help we just ended up being partners in crime.”

The Burien City Council set a goal of $15,000 to be raised by citizens, matched by $15,000 from the city.

What followed was a couple years of bake sales, rummage sales, t-shirt sales, Christmas dog stocking sales, etc. run by Kellie, Rob and friends.

My own principal contribution to the fundraising effort occurred one night when I turned over, knocked our poodle Otto off the bed and said, “Honey, I think we should get involved with B-Town Dog.”

Marge, my ace computer programmer wife, immediately thought of a crowd sourcing campaign.

That really appealed to me. No baking. No sitting in the wind and rain on a Burien sidewalk selling stuff. No spending money to make money.

Marge suggested setting up a GoFundMe campaign online and additional volunteers got involved. We received several small donations plus some large ones from residents and merchants. Rolling the giant boulder got much easier.

On June 30, Burien Chevrolet and Burien Toyota along with Beneful pushed the boulder over the top.

Eric Mathison is a former editor of the Highline Times. He can be reached care of Ken Robinson at kenr@robinsonnews.com.