The rain did not stop vendors, workers or community patrons from showing out Sunday for the Charlottesville-Albemarle Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' third annual Fall Fest. From 11 a.m. until 3 p.m., people and pets of all ages ate local food, shopped at various booths and brought home new furry friends at IX Art Park.
Fall Fest is the CASPCA’s largest adoption event of the year. Sponsored by Piedmont Tire Company, adoptions of cats and dogs were free all weekend at both the shelter in Albemarle and at the event. Besides over 45 food stands and vendors, the event also included activities such as pumpkin painting, inflatables and contests for dogs. Some other sponsors of the event include Wegmans, Two Men and a Truck and Ion Solar.
Shay Harris, adoptions and foster manager at the CASPCA, helped facilitate adoptions at the event. Harris brought five puppies and six cats to the event from the shelter — the dogs were adopted almost immediately after the start of the day. At the shelter, there were 18 adoptions Friday and 23 Saturday.
“We're thriving right now, which is great … [Fall Fest] is helping us educate the community with these animals, getting them into a new home that matches [and] counseling people so they understand what each animal needs. Getting the name out there and just finding these babies new homes [is the main impact],” Harris said.
Lauren Thomas, events and fundraising manager at the CASPCA, said that her primary priority was to make sure that Fall Fest catered toward all ages. There were activities for kids, such as inflatable basketball, face painting and trick-or-treating, as well as others for adults, like wine ring toss and flash tattoos from Have Heart Tattoo.
“We've got a lot going on, but [we’re] really just trying to bring our community together … we're more than just an animal welfare organization,” Thomas said.
Myron Ballard, University alumnus and Charlottesville resident, attended with hopes of looking at some of the dogs available for adoption. While all of the canines were adopted by the time he arrived, Ballad said that he loved meeting new people in Charlottesville.
“Being around people has been my favorite part … this is a great place to meet other individuals, and just see what people have to offer,” Ballard said.
Previously, the Fall Fest has been held at the U.Va. Discovery Park, but this year it was held at the IX Art Park, a community space decorated with murals and sculptures, as well as an indoor immersive exhibit where the adoption process was set up.
Beyond the waived adoption fees and festivities, the event held a raffle to help raise funds for the shelter, where participants had the chance to win Virginia Football tickets, Swiss red wine bottles, gift cards to local shops and restaurants and more. Attendees were also given an online option to provide donations to cover the cost of the shelter’s pet medical bills. According to Thomas, it is this community funding that showcases the heart of Fall Fest.
“[Fall Fest] is a sort of awareness for community partners … it's not just about adopting out cats and dogs … We partner with different community organizations to make Charlottesville better, and so that's really part of our mission,” Thomas said.
Beyond building community and finding pets their forever homes, another focus for the CASPCA at Fall Fest is supporting animal welfare. Libby Jones, executive director of the CASPCA, believes that this community aspect of the event indirectly helps to support the cause.
“It's really important for us to be able to set that stage and bring everybody else along, because we're not going to be able to solve the animal welfare challenges that are facing our community without the help of our partners,” Jones said. “We're all in this together … making sure that we're uplifting all the animal welfare in our community is really important to us.”
Funds raised at Fall Fest also went to local organizations fighting for similar causes, such as the Companion Animal Fund — which supplies pet food to food banks in need and medical care to feral cats — and the neighboring Fluvanna SPCA.
One attendant, Robin Weil, said she comes back to Fall Fest each year to make connections in the pet community and more specifically, the dog costume contest — which her three Yorkshire Terriers won dressed as “Boozy Yorkers.”
Weil said she also looked forward to catching up with friends she had met at a previous Fall Fest — the owners of a local pet store called Animal Connection that was a vendor at this year’s event.
Between fostering local friendships and adoptions, 59 furry friends were adopted over the course of the weekend at the shelter and IX Park under the Fall Fest’s waived fees. In turn, the shelter can open their doors to more animals and of course, attendees can leave with lasting connections to the Charlottesville pet owner community.
“The most important thing is getting the animals adopted, getting them out of the shelter, and then I will actually start transferring new animals in,” Harris said. “It gives us the opportunity to reach out to [neighboring] shelters that need help, that are full, unable to take in any more animals, and I can pull from those shelters and bring [animals] to our shelter and free up space for them.”
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