New Dog Park to Open After Receiving $25,000 PetSafe® Bark for Your Park™ Grant

PENSACOLA, Fla. – Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola is holding the grand opening of the new PetSafe® Dog Park on Monday, July 1. The new dog park was made possible through the PetSafe® Bark for Your Park™ program, a grant program that provides funding to create safe, off-leash dog parks nationwide.

Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola is one of 13 grant recipients across the country to receive funding through the 2018 PetSafe® Bark for Your Park™ program. The new addition will provide a playground for the hospital’s therapy dogs and serve as a place for patients to visit their own furry friends. It also allows for patients to be able to spend time outdoors and away from their hospital rooms, while providing them with the physical, mental and behavioral benefits of interacting with pets.

“We created Bark for Your Park™ to support community partners who are in need of a safe, dedicated space to spend time with their pets,” says Celeste Vlok, marketing manager for PetSafe® brand. “The Sacred Heart Hospital is a particularly special recipient, as the park will create a more livable, active space for patients and allow them to have more time outdoors with their therapy dogs and family pets.”

“We are incredibly grateful to PetSafe in making our new Dog Park at the Studer Family Children’s Hospital a reality,” says Will Condon, president of the Studer Family Children’s Hospital. “Our new Dog Park serves so many purposes from community members’ pets to our Children’s Hospital facility dogs and it also allows our patients and families to be able to bring their dogs to visit the hospital. We know play is how children learn, communicate, and process feelings. It is integral to just about everything we do at the Children’s Hospital.”

The Pensacola PetSafe® Dog Park will be open to hospital patients and the public community. It will be located on Sacred Heart’s Ninth Avenue campus in the Mother Seton Garden, which is the area in front of the Studer Family Children’s Hospital.

About PetSafe®

PetSafe® is one of the most trusted pet brands globally. It is dedicated to creating more “best moments” between pets and their owners through innovative product solutions. As an industry leader, the PetSafe® brand offers behavioral, containment, and lifestyle solutions. PetSafe® brand is owned by Radio Systems Corporation®, headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, and services over 50 countries globally. For more information about PetSafe®, visit www.petsafe.com.

About Bark for Your Park™

In 2011, PetSafe® brand developed and launched the nationwide Bark for Your Park™ campaign with the goal of providing dog parks that community members, civic leaders, and pet owners would love, use and support for years to come. To date, the PetSafe® brand has donated over $1.6 million dollars, which has helped fund 81 off-leash parks around the country.

About Sacred Heart Health System in Pensacola

In Florida, Ascension operates Sacred Heart Health System based in Pensacola and St. Vincent’s HealthCare based in Jacksonville. Ascension’s facilities in Florida include seven hospitals and more than 100 other sites of care and together they employ more than 10,000 associates. Across the region, Sacred Heart and St. Vincent’s have served North Florida communities for more than 145 years. In fiscal year 2018, the statewide Ministry provided $180 million in community benefit and care of persons living in poverty. Ascension (www.ascension.org) is a faith-based healthcare organization dedicated to transformation through innovation across the continuum of care. As one of the leading non-profit and Catholic health systems in the U.S., Ascension is committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. Ascension includes approximately 156,000 associates and 34,000 aligned providers. The national health system operates more than 2,600 sites of care – including 151 hospitals and more than 50 senior living facilities – in 21 states and the District of Columbia. For more information on Sacred Heart Health System, visit healthcare.ascension.org.