A total of eleven animal rescue groups from Lovingston, Waynesboro, Palmyra, Charlottesville, Esmont, Troy, and Ruckersville will be gathering at the Scottsville Pavilion on September 15th to participate in this year’s Creatures Great & Small Festival. Between 12 noon and 4 pm that Sunday, the annual Scottsville event will showcase and build support for Central Virginia animal welfare and rescue groups in their efforts to adopt or foster rescued animals and educate the public regarding lifesaving programs for abandoned and abused animals.
While many of the exhibiting groups will be featuring adoptable cats and dogs, this Second Annual Creatures Great & Small Festival will also have on display many other rescued animals. There will be rabbits from Bunni Lu, goats and a pony from Feel Better Farm, horses from Gallastar Equine Rescue, a mini donkey from the Madison-Greene Humane Society, Shetland sheepdogs from Northern Virginia Sheltie Rescue and more. Other exhibiting groups will include Caring for Creatures Animal Sanctuary, the Fluvanna Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Sentient Sanctuary, Almost Home Adoption Center, Cat Action Team, and Green Dogs Unleashed.
Festival visitors may bring their pets to participate in an ongoing Blessing of the Animals hosted by Pastor Laura Stratton from Scottsville United Methodist Church. There will also be numerous opportunities for animal selfie photos, as well as meet-and-greets with creatures at several petting pens.
A Festival Mega-Raffle will be held to benefit the exhibiting groups. Prizes will be gift certificate bundles worth $200, $100 and $50. The raised funds will be distributed at the end of the day to the groups based on the results of a Best-Exhibit-of-Festival contest to be decided by attendee ballot.
There will also be music and food for Festival visitors to enjoy. Lunch and snack choices will include barbecue (BBQ U), veggie tacos (Zen Eats), hot sandwiches (T&M Foods), Turkish street foods (Otto’s), ices (Kona Ice) and funnel cakes (T&M Foods). Partakers will be able to eat at covered picnic benches while listening to live music performed by Four Hits and a Miss from 2pm to 3:30pm.
The Second Annual Creatures Great & Small Festival is being organized by the Scottsville-based James River Good Works Group. “Last year, we showcased 8 groups and raised $1900 for them,” said Group Director Kathy Arbuthnott. “We’re working hard to do even more for the eleven groups that will be exhibiting at this year’s Festival.”
Admission to the Festival is free, and pets are welcome. For more info, visit JRGW on Facebook or on the web. Submitted by Alexander Stone
