Dog Park Opens! Read Dog Park Committee Chairman Ryan Schwertfeger's Speech (as prepared for delivery)

Thank you. It is a privilege to be part of a great day for the Borough of Oakland. We are honored to have Rev. Stammer, Rev. Provencher, Park Chairman Mike Guadagnino, Mayor Schwager, Assemblywoman DeFuccio, Senator Schepisi, and Congressman Gottheimer with us today. I also want to personally thank the many friends and family here who have come out to celebrate this occasion. And I especially want to thank the hundreds of Oakland residents, local supporters, volunteers, and behind-the-scenes helpers who have made this dog park possible.

I’m sure most of you will likely remember that famous line from a the Tootsie Roll Pop commercial which asks: “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop?” You may not know that engineering students at Purdue University built a licking machine to answer that question. They discovered that on average, their machine needed 364 licks to get to the center of the Tootsie Roll pop. I’ve been dealing with a similar question that was unsolved for many years: “How long does it take to build a dog park in Oakland?” I now know the answer. It takes 12 years and two months.

Early in 2009, we had just rescued our dog, Scooby. My mother, Jill, suggested that for my eighth-grade community project at Valley Middle School, I should investigate what it would take to build a dog park in Oakland. I thought I had a simple but effective plan. Within a few months, I collectedgot 700 petition signatures and even received some support from Borough Council members. But then I learned that my proposed location, which is now known as Stewart’s Woods, would not work as a dog park site. Instead, I was told to wait until the Borough completed the purchase of 40 acres at what was formerly Pleasureland and Muller’s Park, because a dog park could go there. I remember my disappointment when then-Councilwoman Karen Marcalus told me graciously but honestly, “Ryan, it’s probably not going to be done until you graduate from high school.”

Even after the Borough purchased what is now Great Oak Park in 2011, there were many obstacles to overcome. Then, in 2012, we learned that my mother, who had inspired this project, had cancer on her abdominal wall. She unfortunately succumbed to the cancer and went home to the Lord in August of that year. Amidst our mourning, I honestly considered giving up this project. But after a few days, it dawned on me that this dog park would indeed have to go forward. It just had to. And it would be in honor of my mother.

When I was born, my mom decided that she would wanted to be a stay-at-home mother. It was so important to her to have bonding time with me, and especially after I was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, she and my father, Dirk, wanted to make sure I was getting the support and attention I needed from my teachers and from other professionals. My mom was not on any boards or committees in town, but she quietly made a difference. I remember many occasions when, after picking me up at school, she would have me run out of the car and drop off food she had made for a local family who had fallen on hard times on their doorstep. In today’s terms, you could say she was a personal Meals-on-Wheels service and I was the Uber Eats delivery boy.

Scooby soon also became a partner in my mother’s community service. She got him certified as a therapy dog and started taking Scooby him to local senior care centers and rehab facilities, to bring a smile and some comfort to people who really needed it. She also participated in a program at the Oakland Public Library, where children would read to Scooby, because some children feel more comfortable talking to animals than to other people when learning to read. My mom was a quiet but exemplary inspiration to many. I am honored that with the approval of Oakland Borough Council, this new facility will be officially known henceforth as the Jill Schwertfeger Memorial Dog Park.

The road from August 2012 to today was monumental, with more challenges than I could ever have imagined. It included waiting on environmental reviews, holding town hall meetings, conducting fundraising, finding vendors and donors, and working closely with our wonderful partners — the Borough Council, the staff at Borough Hall, Mike Guadagnino and the park Great Oak Park Committee, and , donors and companies that could volunteer their services. All of that while trying to work with the Mike and Park Committee to make sure we were working together and in a correct progress order to open Great Oak Park to the public and also working alongside Jim Folkerts and along with the rest of those serving and everyone involved with the Sports Association of Oakland, which served which as they acted as our bank for the funds we raised were raising. I also want to acknowledge the amazing work  who acted as our non-profit bank to ensure fundraisers were being set up the right way and that our fundraised dollars were correctly put away to start amassing a fund for future construction.

However, the biggest surge of progress came at just the right time. I had just graduated from college in the spring of 2017 and it became clear that final approvals I needed were coming up very shortly and fundraising efforts needed to kick into high gear. We have had some members come and go over the years, but we’ve had a core group serve as members of our the Dog Park Fundraising Subcommittee. Through their tireless efforts and their connections, With their assistance, we were able to raise almost $50,000tens of thousands of dollars. Would the members of that the subcommittee who are here today please wave raise your hand so we can all recognize you?

In addition to the nearly helping with event planning, fundraising, coordination, finding donors and even applying for grants. I thank you immensely from the bottom of my heart and I’d like to ask that these fine ladies and gentlemen please recognize themselves in the audience so we can all thank you for your countless hours of volunteerism and efforts to help me make this dog park a reality.

With this group’s help, the dog park efforts exploded onto the scene here in Oakland and by late 2017, we were starting to hold craft shows, sell dog park supporter magnets, having a dessert night, selling dog park merchandise, holding restaurant nights, and even more and we raised thousands of dollars doing so. While I believe I would have been able to do some of these things operating as a committee of one with some help from family and some friends, it absolutely would not have been as successful, as impactful, or as well executed without the help of all of these committee members and without the love, support and encouragement of the dog park supporters who bought and displayed a magnet, purchased a T-shirt, or shopped at one of our craft shows. $50,000 in cash we raised, approximately $55,000 of free or discounted donated labor and services were donated for this project. I’d like to use this time to ask that anyone here who donated volunteer hours towards construction or design of the dog park to raise your hand now so we can publicly thank you as well.

This long journey has taught me that to achieve a difficult goal, you need three Ps, in this order: Prayer, Perseverance, and Patience. You need prayer to ask God to work in your life, guide you into what you can and should be doing, and give you wisdom. You need perseverance to keep going even when things look bleak, abysmal, and hopeless. And you need lots of patience when things don’t happen as fast as you would like because the world does not revolve around you and your priorities.

This dog park is named in memory of one unsung hero, my mother. But I would like it also to serve as a symbol of the many unsung heroes, volunteers, and community members who make Oakland the wonderful Borough that it is. So many of you do essential things to keep Oakland running, not for personal benefit or recognition but out of the goodness of your heart, just as my mom, Jill Schwertfeger did. Even though your name may not be on the dog park sign, I would like you to feel that this park is also dedicated to you.

Again, thank you for coming to this ceremony. May God bless you all for your love, support, kindness, and prayers, and may God forever bless the Jill Schwertfeger Memorial Dog Park in the wonderful Borough of Oakland, New Jersey.

Photos taken by Grace Nappi, Ken Porro, and State Sen. Holly Schepisi's Office