Dog park in Hershey, please! 🐶

Recently I took my 5 dogs, 30 minutes away to another town to visit a incredible dog park. I was so blown away at how amazing it was, for the dogs and for the people of the community too! People were making friends while their dogs made friends. The dogs were running their hearts out finally able to be off their leashes free to do dog things they can't do in the house. They were socializing with the other dogs and the people of the park. The community was helping to maintain the park. The owners were cleaning after their dogs, their was a beautiful place to sit for owners and a lovely water park station for the dogs to play in as well. There was an absorbent AstroTurf instead of grass ( no dirty, muddy dogs) there was water fountains for both dogs and humans. I had an amazing time talking to the people and playing with the dogs at the park. My dogs came home happy and tired.
I started thinking on my 20+ mile drive home... I live in Hershey, PA. One of the most amazing towns in PA if you ask me and many others. We are a dog friendly town, with tons of tourists that come to visit in summer. We have at least 7 dog friendly hotels in town. We have an amazing recreation center for the community. A beautiful pool, and library, play ground, tennis court and skate park.We have an incredible amusement park with tons of roller coasters!! We have a stadium where top notch musicians come, and we have our own Hockey team, plus WE MAKE CHOCOLATE?!! The town is beautiful, well kept, and the people are really enjoyable to talk to.

We have ALMOST everything a community needs but our community misses out on something fairly simple that could truly bring a lot of joy to our town.
Simply put, we need a dog park in Hershey. Many of us know the benefits to owning a dog. Plenty of dog owners and lovers in the community. Did you know that owning a dog can help to reduce stress, anxiety and depression? It can help to ease loneliness, encourages exercise and is great for your cardiovascular system!!! In fact, many scientific studies have proven dog ownership can lower cholesterol levels, hypertension, even help heart attack survivors live longer!
Raising a dog can help children learn responsibility, accountability and leadership. It of course provides anyone with an immediate best friend that loves you unconditionally. They provide sensory relief to many people on the autism spectrum or with other disabilities and sensory disorders. Dogs can be trained to service the disabled and many people own emotional support dogs for mental health issues. They add structure and routine to your day, they can often even help you connect with people! Especially other dog owners and lovers. I think with all the benefits listed among many more not recognized here, and with our general knowledge we can all say there are enormous benefits to having dogs and dog owners in our community, after all, happy people =happy community. So why is it that we aren't celebrating this? We have no outlets to take our dogs anywhere and let them run. There are plenty of people who don't live in homes with fenced yards and have no place to take their dogs for socialization. Dog socialization makes happy dogs, so it's vital that pet owners socialize their dogs if possible. There is one doggie daycare that has an area to run and a pool that costs 15 dollars per HALF HOUR!! I own 5 dogs, that is NOT happening on my budget and definitely not on the budget of many people. I have always thought of Hershey as one of the most upscale towns in the area. We need a dog park!! This dog park would be kept up by volunteers and donations. I have no doubts that it would be a hit and I need to prove that dog owners in our town want this. So if you and your dog/s could benefit from having a place to go run and play, and socialize, PLEASE sign my petition!
Dog Park in Hershey, PLEASE!!!!!!