How To Get a Dog Park Established In Maple Valley (…and Other Things)

Recently, we polled some social peeps on what they would change if they could change one thing about Maple Valley.

…but MAYBE we cold love it MORE if it had a dog park!

That was one of the requests brought up by our Facebook and Twitter friends.

There are many other improvements that were mentioned, especially on our Facebook page, but you can read this blog if you want to see them all.

Let’s take the dog park example.

Currently there are no dog parks in Maple Valley. But there certainly are plenty of dogs. Fortunately, Cedar River Trail is pet-friendly, but the closest dog park is actually a couple cities away.

If enough of you want something improved in Maple Valley, here’s what we recommend:

Create an Organization – it doesn’t even need to be official: “Get a Dog Park in Maple Valley!”
Write out a Mission Statement. Get a photo of a dog (or better yet, a dog in a park) to represent your organization. Get a few other photos that represent what you’re about (you’ll see why later).
Create a basic website. WordPress.com or Squarespace.com are great places to start, and they make it very easy. Avoid Blogger or Blogspot like the plague.
Create a Facebook page. Use the main photo of a dog for the Profile Photo. Use another cool photo for the Cover Photo. Use the Mission Statement as the “Short Description”, and in the “About Section”, tell the story of your movement!
Create a Twitter account. You may hate Twitter, but it’s way easier to get interest going than on Facebook. Use the main photo for the Profile Photo and the one you used for the Facebook Cover Photo as the Background Photo. Use your Mission Statement as your Bio – it’s gotta be short.
Create a Pinterest account. Start pinning photos of dogs and dog parks! Link it to your Facebook and Twitter pages.
Begin sharing and interacting! From Pinterest, when you Pin something new, you can share it immediately to your linked Twitter and Facebook accounts. It’s great.
Look around for websites that allow you to begin petitions, like Causes.com. Cook up a letter to the Mayor of Maple Valley and get people you interacted with on social media to sign it! 🙂

Remember to keep it fun and light-hearted.

If anyone is interested in spearheading these sorts of efforts, leave a comment below to let us know!