Community Build Day Supports Johns Creek K9 Training Facility

JOHNS CREEK, GA -- Residents who love and support their Johns Creek Police Department will soon be able to donate their time and skills to help an important part of the agency.

Leadership Johns Creek will host its Community Build Day from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 25 at the Newtown Park patio.

The day will be spent by volunteers building training obstacles to be used in a new K9 training facility.

Leadership Johns Creek is a service-oriented leadership program that seeks to develop, energize, and organize community leaders. Now in its eighth year, the 10-month program continues to incorporate hands-on learning with team-based projects to tackle real needs in the community.

After learning more about the drug epidemic during Leadership Johns Creek's healthcare and community health day, Leadership Johns Creek – Team Visionaries leader Sandra Pastorello said her group was immediately interested in doing something to help.

“We knew that the K9 unit of the Johns Creek Police Department assists with finding narcotics and getting drugs off the street,” Pastorello said. “Supporting the K9 unit and improving their ability to train in their own facility will help keep our community safe. Team Visionaries goal is to provide our police department with a training facility as well as the tools needed to support our K9 units need for on-going training to do their job successfully every day. That includes, training to apprehend criminal suspects, sniff out drugs or explosives, and track criminals or missing persons.”

In addition to the funds raised from the community on the GoFundMe page, the business community pitched in with major sponsorships from the Atlanta Retailers Association, Northside Hospital, Wild Wing Café, Emory Johns Creek, Freeman Outdoor Lighting, The Rotary Club – Johns Creek, The PawPlex, Perimeter Church, and Drive Planning.

Additionally, The Home Depot and Lowe’s have both supported the project by donating or reducing the cost of the needed supplies to make the project a reality.

As part of the March 25 project, any member of the public who can swing a hammer or drill in screws is invited to show their support by assisting in putting together the plywood-based search boxes, modular pigeon hole box, A-frame climb, low-crawl box and other canine training obstacles needed to outfit the new K9 Training Facility.

Volunteers are asked to wear close-toed shoes and bring their own gloves and tools to assist with the effort.

The patio is located behind Park Place at 3150 Old Alabama Road in Johns Creek. For more information, visit Leadership Johns Creek's Facebook page dedicated to the K9 Training Facility as well as the GoFundMe page.

Images via Leadership Johns Creek