Fundraising

Tucked away in a small corner of Ōtaihanga on the Kāpiti Coast, our volunteer‐run dog obedience club has long been a beacon for families seeking to strengthen the bond with their four‐legged friends. For 40+ years, dusk didn’t dim our spirits—or our training sessions—because we had a proper clubhouse and floodlit grounds where puppies took their first downs and older dogs mastered their recalls. 

In early 2021, everything changed. The council asked us to vacate our beloved training field to allow for the expansion of a nearby composting facility—with no new home offered. In July 2023, we were told to vacate our home of 40+ years. For eighteen months we shuttled between borrowed spaces at Ōtāraua Park, braving long shadows and early sunsets. Our dedicated volunteers laid grass seed by day and swept up training treats by night, but without proper lighting, many families simply couldn’t attend, and our community spirit dimmed along with the autumn skies. 

When the council finally handed us a permanent site in January 2025—once a recycling and composting hub—it fell to us to rebuild from the ground up. However critical pieces were still missing: our rustic clubhouse, heart of our gatherings, remained behind at the old site, and the ground, though resilient, sat unlit. Without floodlights, our autumn and winter evenings are dark, making the grounds unusable.  

Today, we are asking for your help to raise $150,000 for permanent, energy‑efficient floodlighting—so our obedience classes can shine on through the shortest days—and to relocate a recently purchased old school classroom to act as our new clubhouse. Furthermore, we want the clubhouse accessible to all, and council rules state we must have all means of consents approved. This means we need funding for a safe access ramp and veranda for our clubhouse. Your gift will: 

• Ensure all year-round classes remain on the schedule during the winter months. 

• Make our facilities fully compliant to meet the councils' strict requirements. 

• Create a safe and welcoming location where local dog owners can train obedient and social dogs. 

Every donation—no matter the size—becomes a beam of light, an incline on a ramp, a plank of veranda flooring. Together, we can continue to foster confidence in every dog and joy in every owner on winter nights or warm summer evenings. 

Please join us in lighting the way forward: visit our fundraising page or flick us an email to learn how your support will keep our tails wagging long after the sun goes down. 

Thank you for helping our community—and our canine companions—thrive. 

Scan the QR code below to go directly to our givealittle page or click here