Cloquet Business Donates Over $8,000 to K9 Foundation through 5K Race

CLOQUET, Minn.– Following the loss of Duluth Police Department’s K9-Luna this winter, one Cloquet area business stepped in to show their support for the DPD. Friday night at the event, K9 Luna’s handler Officer Aaron Haller spoke about the support he’s gotten from the community.

K-9 Luna was shot by David Conwell after a 20-hour standoff with authorities in February. Luna’s death came just over two years after K9 Haas was shot by an armed suspect. Those at the Rendezvous Sports Bar and Grill hoped to honor both fallen K9’s.

The check was given to the Northland K9 Foundation and K9 Haas and Luna’s handler officer Aaron Haller. Rendezvous raised $8,372 through their inaugural 5K race, which saw over 500 runners last Saturday.

The idea for the race came shortly after the death of K9 Luna in late February, when Rendezvous staff said they wanted to help out and show their gratitude to area law enforcement.

“It just shows that everybody does care and they all wanna back the blue and they don’t get necessarily get enough respect everyday now. So we just wanted to be there for them because they’re always there for us,” said Rendezvous Owner Ross Swanstrom.

Officer Haller says he was surprised to see the $8,000-plus donation from the first ever race. He adds that the funds will be a huge boost for the K9 Foundation to help care for DPD’s police dogs, quality of training for the K9s, and the amount on the force.

“When you’ve been doing this job as long as I have and you seen some of the things I’ve seen, then you see something like this to kind of offset some of those things that you’ve seen and been through,” said Haller. “It’s just good to see. Hard to put it into words but it’s pretty amazing.”

Those at rendezvous are more than happy with the turnout from this year’s first-ever 5K. Rendezvous staff plan to do it again next year, and hope for an even bigger donation.