On the west side of Black Diamond headquarters, there is a small, fenced dog run. There is a picnic bench where employees have lunch with their dogs and plenty of shade from the trees for the hot summer days. It is called the Rumple Run, created and named after Kollin Powick’s dog, Rumple. Here is the origin of the Rumple Run, as told by KP himself.
At Black Diamond, we’ve always been able to bring our dogs to work. I brought my first two labs, Ellis and Yukon, and then, of course, I brought Rumple. Rumple showed up to work the VERY first day I got him (November 14th, 2008) and was at work almost every single day for 13.5 years. He was a longer term “employee” than probably 90% of the other employees. Everyone knew him. Rumple was a legend at Black Diamond.
At the office, there has always been a crappy little spot to take the dogs out and let them go to the bathroom. It’s on the South side of the building. It does the job but isn’t great. On the west side of the building, there is a large grass lot past the parking lot that wasn’t really used for much. Sometimes people took their pups over there, but there wasn’t a fence, so they needed to be on a leash.
Rumple had just passed away and there was a bit of a hotdog BBQ on the west lot area. I had been away 2 weeks prior, and my assistant kept checking to be sure that I would be there for the event.
Everyone was there, and everyone knew what was going on, EXCEPT ME!
Well, apparently, the day that I lost Rumple, the whole RND team starting brainstorming ideas. “How can we honor Rumple?” “What can we do for KP?” The WHOLE company was in on it—from facilities, to HR, to finance, to my whole team in RND. They decided to build a fenced-in dog run for all the dogs at work. They called it the RUMPLE RUN, complete with a memorial bench and plaque. I was blown away! It is the most thoughtful thing I could think of to honor such an important member of the Black Diamond family.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kolin Powick, KP, was the previous VP of Product and current BD stoke officer. The dogs of Black Diamond still enjoy the Rumple Run and the legacy brought from one good dog.
