Greetings! If this is your first visit to our blog diary, you may wish to scan the intro to the November 2008 entry to see what we are about.
Off Leash!
Much has happened since November. Mainly, the Green Dog Walkers is now OFF LEASH! We continue our basic project in the Denny and Dunipace area and it has expanded throughout Falkirk District...to such a degree that it was officially launched by Falkirk Council's Litter Strategy Team a couple weeks ago with a whole new "more colourful" pledge brochure!l
Now any constituted group in Falkirk District can adopt the project and run it themselves in their own neighbourhood, group, town, etc. The council provides a starter box of pledge brochures, armbands, posters, stickers, doggie bags, "how to" sheets, etc. We also are available to come talk to your group about Green Dog Walkers and help you get going. The council will continue promoting the project, providing bus ads, etc.
Kids Involved...
We have visited schools, parents groups, dog clubs, etc. lately, all with great success. Jennifer Milton of the Litter Team is working with some schools on special projects to tackle the dog fouling problems on paths near the schools - the kids are doing poo counts and pouring coloured sand over the spots, to help dramatize how bad it really is. Hopefully the adults who walk the dogs are taking note!
We recently gave a presentation to an entire primary school (in 3 groups, over 1.5 hrs) about the health risks of dog poo and the Green Dog Walkers project. They were a great audience, asked very good questions (everything from "Why don't people clean up the dog poo?" to "Why do dogs like to stick their heads out car windows?") and we have continued some email dialogue with some of the pupils who want to take on a project.
Further expansions...
We met with representatives from some other council areas in Scotland and formed an agreement to let them pilot Green Dog Walkers in their areas while we finalise our trademark and licensing agreements to allow the project to go national. Some of the areas you will be seeing the pilot projects are Fife, Normand Park/London, Midlothian. We are very curious to see how the project works in the park areas especially. A big launch was held recently at Normand Park and many new pledgers were signed up. Locally we have events on 25th April in Denny (a Keep Scotland Beautiful clean up event) and Zetland Park in Falkirk on the 26th (a big dog day event).
Other discussions are underway for further promotional events with celebrities in the London area. Watch this space!
We are doing mutual informal promotions with a company called Poopod...we like their product, it gives a great alternative if you are hiking where there are no dog bins or if it's a long way to the next dog bin...check it out: http://www.poopod.com/
NEW LEAF NEWS is out now, and includes a page for Green Dog Walkers. Click here to read it online and email us if you wish a free quarterly subscription - see the great article, "Your Dog, Worms & You"! We have also added our campaign at the Greenvoice.com website, and invite you to visit them, they are a great group who are really walking the talk to help green projects!
and visit: http://www.greenvoice.com/greendogwalkers
More news soon, this is just a quick update for now. Generally we plan a lot of "path side booths" in the Dunipace/Denny area over the summer months. We are targetting a couple of really bad spots - the top of old Gala Park and the Rosebank Community Woodland paths.
Remember...LEAVE ONLY PAWPRINTS!
Michelle McCallum
Dunipace & Denny Project Leader
