Adding A Bark To PARK(ing) Day
***Guest blog from Aaron Fisher, Founder and CEO – Atlanta Rescue Dog Cafe Inc.***
Atlanta Rescue Dog Cafe (ARDC) was honored last year when Livable Buckhead approached us to participate in the 2018 PARK(ing)Day experience. As a local humane education nonprofit – with a unique mission to keep pets out of shelters (and thus, from becoming rescues in the first place) – community engagement is key to getting the word out about who we are and what we do. In less than two years, our innovative programs have reached more than 10,000 Atlantans, the majority of whom are children (and more than one-third are in under-served communities) in schools, camps, scout troops, libraries and community centers.
The word “Cafe” in our name is intentional, despite not having a physical cafe – at least not yet. Since a cafe is a space where conversation happens, and our mission is to change the conversation for how we address the issues of pet overpopulation and animal cruelty from a reactive to a preventive approach, PARK(ing) Day gave us our first opportunity to create an actual cafe. But how to bring the idea to life was the challenge – at least that’s what we thought. Thankfully, Livable Buckhead partnered us with an amazingly talented and creative team from HGOR, a Buckhead-based landscape architecture firm. With them, we brainstormed, drafted blueprints, and obtained the perfect materials from the Lifecyle Building Center in southwest Atlanta, and Fermob, a French outdoor furniture outfitter. Along with these partners, and iced coffee generously donated by Octane, we were able to build our first pop-up cafe, which turned out to be a huge success.
The whole point of BARK(ing) Day, er, PARK(ing) Day is to reimagine how we use the space and materials immediately around us, how we can lessen our environmental impact, and create spaces that bring people together in creative, innovative, and sustainable ways. Instead of plastic stirrers for our coffee, we used cold spaghetti, which is biodegrable. Our floor was donated red turf that had been used once for the MLS All-Star game in Mercedes Benz Stadium. And our coffee cups and lids were compostable. Finally, visitors were invited to make dog leashes from beautiful and sturdy re-purposed climbing rope (we’ve kept 2,200 lbs. of this material from landfills over the past 18 months), which they could keep 
for a donation, or gift to us. We give the leashes to local police and firefighters, and teach them how to secure loose pets in emergencies and return them to their owners, which keeps pets off the streets and out of shelters.
The Cafe came together beautifully, and allowed us to create the space – in Lenox Mall’s parking lot – we had been envisioning for so long, thanks to the help of an incredibly talented and dedicated team of volunteers, generous local companies, and a space that enabled us to test a proof of concept. Because of last year’s event, the bar has been set high – both for this year’s (PARK)ing Day, and for the cafe we can’t wait to build.
About Atlanta Rescue Dog Cafe Inc. – Atlanta Rescue Dog Cafe is an educational non-profit with a unique mission: to contribute to the well-being of Atlanta’s pets and people to improve human-animal interactions, reduce the incidence of animal cruelty, and relieve the strain on local animal shelters. We achieve this goal by providing fun, interactive, and engaging educational programming for all age levels from pre-kindergarten on up, even for adults. Learn more at their website: therescuedogcafe.org. You can also find them on Facebook @atlantarescuedogcafe and Instagram@atlantarescuedogcafe
