Friends and Supporters:

Construction is progressing at our Forever Home in Cedar Park.  I cannot even begin to put into words how incredibly exciting it is to finally be smashing down walls, installing doors and moving dirt to create a parking lot.  My dream to build this started in 2005.  It took our board over a year to find a suitable piece of land and an additional 8 months to get the site and building permits.  Some very generous individuals have contributed thousands of hours to get us to this point.  

The first phase of our building plan will be completed in January.  Our grand opening carnival is tentatively scheduled for February 17th.  Now that we are underway, I bet you are curious about what are we actually building.  

Parking lots, fences and sidewalks - The major expense of phase 1 is to create 26 parking spaces, a privacy fence on our west side, a dumpster enclosure, bike rack, handicapped parking, sidewalks, a fire hydrant, driveway, monument signage along the curb and all the underground infrastructure to support water, sewer and electricity.  I estimate we will work with over 20 vendors, all working in concert to complete this portion.  Many of these vendors are donating their services.  

Community Building - Our community building is a major remodel of the existing residential home to comply with City of Cedar Park building codes for commercial buildings that are fully Americans with Disabilities Act compliant.  Additionally, we have added features designed to support those with autism. The major expenses are the gutting and rebuilding of the bathrooms and kitchen to have wheelchair access and replacing most of the doors with new doors that are wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair.   The Community Building will include:

• Comfort Lounge - The main room of the building will feature a kitchen, coffee bar, free wi-fi and leather couches.  This space will be used for Youth Association meetings, volunteer events and for parents waiting for their children who are in classes.  Some of our families involved in the autism programs are driving more than an hour to reach us.  This space will provide a welcome respite spot to relax.  
• Early Childhood Education Classroom - This room will provide the physical space needed to provide early childhood story times and programs for children ages 3 - 7 with autism.  The room features a door with an observation window, a security bell and a young child sized bathroom.  As soon as we have the funding, we will build an all-abilities playground outside the back door of this room. 
• Conference Room - This versatile space will support meetings, therapy sessions, tutoring and small group classes.  
• Volunteer Office - This will be command central for the coordination of our 80 canine therapy teams and 320 fosters and event volunteers.  The space will contain desks and a touch screen volunteer check-in station.    
• Retail Boutique - A very small retail section will feature t-shirts and supplies needed for training. Revenue from the boutique will pay for a yearly audit and cleaning of the property.

Temporary Indoor Training - Since we have not yet raised enough funds to build our job skills lab and full sized training building, we are going to create a small training floor in the space that will eventually house the job skills lab.  Our very skilled contractor, Dietrich Quality Design Construction, is going to build the floors, ceilings and walls with the infrastructure to eventually contain the job skills lab.  For now, it will be a large shell.  

Competition Sized Agility Field - Our vision is to have children with autism, developmental delays and or behavioral issues participating in programs which include running dogs through an agility course.  Imagine the self-esteem boost a child will experience as they cue a dog to run through tunnels and over jumps.  We have been offered artificial turf as a donation.  Unfortunately, it will cost about $25,000 to excavate, install the turf, build the fence and buy the equipment to fully create the field.  Sounds like a crazy amount of money, but an artificial field is handicapped friendly, can be used after a rain and does not require planting, weeding, mowing, watering or fertilizing.  In the long run, a really good investment.  This field is on the very short term wish list.  As soon as we have enough donations or a sponsorship, we will build it.  

Purchasing the land and pursuing this capital project has required a certain amount of blind faith that the funds would be raised and that our community would support the process.  It has required perseverance and an unyielding belief that our therapists, instructors, volunteers and amazing therapy dogs can and will continue to change lives.  Every day I am humbled by how very generous people can be with their time and money when they know they are making a difference in our community.

In this month when we take time to reflect on how thankful and blessed we are, I very sincerely say, "thank you to everyone who is contributing to building our new home that will improve lives for generations of dog lovers."

Construction Mascot Trixie

Debi Krakar, Founder and Executive Director

Austin Dog Alliance

PS - Meet Trixie, our construction mascot.  This cute little foster pup is providing therapy to me and the construction team.  Somehow it's hard to be stressed about doors that don't fit or materials that are delayed when you are holding this snuggly 5 pound pocket puppy.  

                                       12129 Ranch Road 620 North, Suite 401

                                       Austin, TX  78750                               

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