Community Corner

Ruffing It Up at Van Saun's New Dog Park

By Ann Piccirillo

On Friday, John Fugazzie of River Edge saw his dream of having a County dog park at Van Saun Park become a reality as the dog park unofficially opened.

Fugazzie, the founder of Neighbors-helping-Neighbors, a job support and networking group, said that the official opening will be in a few weeks, although the date has not yet been confirmed. 

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Fugazzie put a great deal of effort into organizing support to bring a dog park to Van Saun so that residents from Paramus, River Edge, Oradell and New Milford can easily access it. 

Knowing the size of the dog-owning population, Fugazzie was confident that he could draw a crowd to back the dog park--a place where not only dogs can socialize, but their owners can too.  

"It's a dog owner's version of the downtown community," Fugazzie told Patch.

With the help of River Edge Mayor Sandy Moscaritolo, who went to the surrounding towns garnering support for the idea, and Councilwoman Kathleen Murphy, the Van Saun dog park is now complete.

Fugazzie said that a dog park is a place for dogs to play without a leash and to socialize with other dogs. The County offers other dog parks in Ridgewood, as well as in Leonia, Lyndhurst and Woodcliff Lake.

Fugazzie is selling T-shirts for the official opening of the dog park. According to Fugazzie, the Oradell Animal Hospital paid for the cost of the shirts so that all proceeds can be donated to the Bergen County Animal Shelter. Click here to order a shirt. 

Building upon his vision of establishing a dog park at Van Saun, Fugazzie created BergenDog.org, a volunteer organization focused on creating events to help educate people on dog ownership, rescues and shelters. Part of the mission of this group is to hold fundraising events where the proceeds can go directly to help dog rescues and shelters in Bergen County, as well as to educate dog owners and share information to improve the experience of dog ownership. 

The Dog Park is located at the end of Parking Lot 6.

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