Hero Dog Park, which is the long-awaited dog park at Hamnett Memorial Park on Ohio Avenue, will have its grand opening on Aug. 15 at 5:30 p.m.
Mayor Patricia Hendricks Farmer and Township Council will be on hand for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The Growth and Redevelopment Committee members also are expected to attend.
“We are very excited to unveil these great new amenities at Hamnett Memorial Park and Hero Dog Park for our residents to enjoy,” Farmer said.
The dog park will provide a safe, enclosed area for pets to run and play, she said. Upgrades to the overall park will create more opportunities for walking and relaxing.
Hero Dog Park is the second dog park in Lawrence Township. A dog park was opened at Village Park several years ago. Dogs are allowed to run off-leash at both dog parks.
Hero Dog Park is part of a $500,000 renovation project at Hamnett Memorial Park.
About half of the $500,000 project budget was spend on construction of two dog park areas – one for large dogs and one for small dogs, township officials said.
Dog park play equipment, new fencing, landscaping, shade structures and benches have been installed in the dog park areas.
The remaining $250,000 was spent on park amenities such as a new perimeter walking path, lighting, electrical service, water service, a patio seating area and landscaping.
Township officials expect to receive a $125,000 grant from the Mercer at Play program to offset some of the costs.
The name “Hero Dog Park” was suggested by Superintendent of Recreation Nancy Bergen. She made the suggestion after reading an article in The Lawrence Ledger written by the late James Hewitt in 1995.
Hewitt, who died in 2012, was a World War II veteran and was present at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed by Japan. After his military service, he joined the Lawrence Township Police Department and became its first detective.
Hewitt wrote that when he was stationed on a small island in the South Pacific, he befriended a captured German shepherd that had been trained as a war dog by the Japanese army. The dog was adopted by Hewitt and his U.S. Army unit, who named him Moose.
Hewitt wrote that he and Moose developed a bond that lasted until Hewitt was transferred to Hawaii for jungle training school. He had to leave the dog behind.
Moose was later transferred to a U.S. Army base to attend K9 training school. Moose “entered” the U.S. Army and served alongside American soldiers.
Hewitt kept track of Moose, hoping to be reunited with the dog after the war. But Moose was killed in June 1945 when he leaped on a hand grenade to protect his handler. It was tossed toward Moose and his handler by one of the two Japanese soldiers they had discovered hiding in the grass.
Hewitt received a letter from the Central Pacific Base Command that explained how Moose died. The dog knew the hand grenade was a weapon and jumped on it as it exploded. The dog saved his handler’s life, the letter said.
“Somewhere on the Pacific island of Okinawa where Moose died, there is a grave marked ‘Moose, U.S. Army K9 Corps, Army Serial Number OX-79. Killed in action against the enemy, June 20, 1945,'” Hewitt wrote in the newspaper article.
