Love of dogs, community motivates San Dimas Citizen of the Year

July 14--SAN DIMAS -- Besides the opportunities for canine companionship, "you can't exercise your dog like another dog can," said Caryol Smith, who led the effort to establish San Dimas Dog Park.

Smith, described as a "dedicated, loyal advocate who is easy to approach, always caring and willing to go extra miles to assist others" by San Dimas municipal parks manager Karen De Leon, is the city's 2014 Citizen of the Year.

She was selected by the San Dimas Chamber of Commerce for the chamber and city's top award. The chamber presented the award at its annual banquet in late June.

Joe Fransen, a past San Dimas and La Verne chamber president, was also honored with the chamber's lifetime achievement award. Fransen has put in nearly three decades of community service, including work as a board member for McKinley Children's Center and a volunteer for city, chamber and nonprofit programs.

De Leon said Smith filled a void when she successfully campaigned to establish the dog park at Horsethief Canyon Park. Smith shares in a belief that "parks enhance the life of the community by providing leisure time and recreational services for infants to senior citizens," De Leon added.

Smith has had a dog for a pet and friend since growing up in Sacramento. Her husband of 52 years, Walter, is a banking, financial and insurance business consultant who didn't grow up with dogs. But he, their sons Brian and Eric and grandchildren Eric Jr., Kyle, Emily, Korie and Alex now share Caryol's enthusiasm and affection for dogs.

Family has always been vital to her happiness and existence, said Smith, 75.

She calls her late mother, Leota Renner, "a wonderful warrior woman who boldly and bravely" raised three daughters alone after she was divorced. Renner returned to school after dropping out of school at 14, got a business degree and opened family-owned five-and-dime stores.

Smith also loves telling the story of her grandfather, at 8 years old, seeing a "pretty 6-year-old blond girl swinging her feet from the back of a covered wagon" in the wagon train taking their families west. As an adolescent, Charles O. Wilson declared the pretty blonde, Celeste, would be his wife.

"They were married for 68 years," Smith said, smiling. "My sisters and I grew up good because Mother loved us and gave us a good life. She had learned to be a woman of honor, integrity and pride from my grandparents. I got my perseverance and patience from my mother."

Dogs were members of the family and companions to humans during her childhood. Her first dog, a cocker spaniel named Lady, was a tiny, sick puppy covered with mites and mud when her mother rescued her and nursed her back to health. Honey, a cocker mix, was the second family dog and Tinker, a black cocker, was third.

"No matter what my dates wore, they also wore blond or black dog hairs on their clothes," Smith recalled, chuckling.

When she decided San Dimas needed a dog park, she was thinking beyond the needs of Miya and Willie, the Shetland sheep dog and terrier mix now a part of the Smith family. Volunteerism was a habit inherited from a mother convinced volunteering was essential to making and maintaining good communities. When her sons were growing up, she volunteered with the Parent-Teacher-Student Association, as a Little League mom and snack bar manager and at school. She later added visiting lonely seniors at convalescent homes and coordinating educational efforts and children's tours at the Wildlife Way Station, a wildlife refuge and rehabilitation facility.In 2001, she decided San Dimas needed a dog park "to fill the void in so many people's lives. It would be as much for the people as the dogs. There are people who are lonely and seniors who are all alone now. Dogs can create a whole new circle of friends and restore people's love of life by having to care for and love something else," Smith reasoned.

She solicited community input, looked at environmental issues and petitioned the city for a public hearing. She figured humans benefit from a dog park because their dogs become better pets and more well-adjusted when they have contact with other dogs and humans. Running with other dogs in a park is also great exercise, Smith added.

The dog park, opened in 2005, is popular with canine owners from 49 Southland communities. It has rules and restrictions to make it a safer park, including a mandatory spay-and-neutering requirement to reduce aggressive behavior and a no-smoking rule because of its proximity to wildlife areas.

Smith established The Friends of the San Dimas Dog Park, a support group with 4,000 members maintaining and cleaning up the park; The Ambassadors, park greeters who help newcomers "feel comfortable and welcome"; and a park newsletter and website. She also does daily "perimeter poop patrols to make sure the park is a healthy park."

A San Dimas Parks and Recreation Commission member from 2006 to 2012, she also volunteers for Western Days, San Dimas Family Festival and Bowser Bash.

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