Recently Renton’s off- leash dog park got some much-needed maintenance help from students from Renton and Hazen high schools as part of their required community service hours.

Ten students total from Brett Crueger’s class at Hazen and Dylan Okimoto’s Green Team at Renton High School volunteered at the Cedar River Dog Park earlier this month. The students, Henry Nguyen, Daevon Bovan, Rachealle Sampayan, Tin Le, Brandon Saefam, Angelo Duran, Blake Lewis, Chester Pasay and Ryan Angeles spread 100 cubic yards of wood chips to reduce the water puddles at the park.

The Cedar River Dog Park is not a City of Renton park, but a non-profit, volunteer managed and maintained park that partners with the city.

The park would be a muddy mess if it wasn’t for the help of the students, said Marlene Winter, volunteer park manager.

“These teachers are such heroes, along with these hardworking kids,” she said via email.

Winter is head of the organization Renton Unleashed Furry Friends or RUFF, which is in charge of the park. Most of their upkeep is spreading wood chips three times a year, replacing the dog clean-up bags and maintaining park rules. The park gets as many as 75 visitors a day, weather depending.

The Hazen students are from Crueger’s American Government and Contemporary World Issues classes.

“Last year Marlene Winter contacted me about needing some volunteers for some work at the Dog Park,” said Crueger, via email. “I sent her a few students, who did a good job for her.”

He has since worked with her a few times and she just recently contacted him for this project. Volunteerism is a part of Crueger’s civics project for his classes, but students can fulfill the requirements in a variety of ways.

Okimoto learned of the opportunity through a City of Renton Parks worker. He is the adviser for Renton High’s Green Team. He gets many of his volunteers through a district requirement that has students volunteering a minimum of 20 hours their senior year.

“Therefore, in order to help senior members of the Green Team meet this standard, I have arranged three events so far this year: Kubota Gardens’ fall plant sale, Fall Clean and Green Saturday and the Cedar River Dog Park,” said Okimoto.

Winter appreciates any help she can get for the park which is volunteer run.

“Those kids really are remarkable and so are their teachers for motivating them to give back to their community,” she said.

If you’d like to volunteer at the Cedar River Dog Park, email Marlene at marlene@marlenewinter.com.