Ryan Ostry
Bugle Reporter
@RyanOstry_BR18
rostry@buglenewspapers.com
If being surrounded by many perky, rambunctious, energetic dogs is your thing, and you missed the Pet-A-Palooza last Saturday at the Crossroads of Faith United Methodist Church, well then there’s always next year.
This event featured a variety of different accessories, which made the day a success to its visitors.
Pet adoptions, pet blessings, pet photo booth, pet paw prints, dog baths, vendor tables, health tables and a weenie roast were all apart of this occurrence.
Office Manager Michelle Pieroni and her daughter, Payton, were glad to see so many people come out for the inaugural Pet-A-Palooza, which to them has many benefits.
“With this being our very first year we’ve had this, we wanted it to be a community wide event so that people could get interested in our church,” Michelle said. “Also, we wanted to open up this afternoon for people so they could adopt these pets if they wanted to because [Payton] and I are really into saving these animals through pet adoptions and pet shelters.”
Payton, also wanted the opportunity for more people to get involved with the Church and get the chance to come out and meet all the different pets having the opportunity to make a difference in not just the pets lives, but the people as well.
“We wanted to share this event with our community by opening up our arms and giving these people the chance to meet all the pets and get involved more with our church,” Payton said. “We’ve never really done this with the church, it’s pretty inclusive and we’ve just been extremely excited that we’ve gotten the chance to do this for the people and the pets.”
Pet-A-Palooza was free admission to everybody who came, and had different sponsors that helped attribute to the animals well being.
“It’s nice for everybody because it is free, and all the donations accepted by the vendors will be going to the church,” Michelle said.
Adoption organizations that participated in the cause were NAWS Humane Society and Humane Haven Animal Shelter.
The vendors that were in attendance were PetSmart and Its So Fluffy Bakery.
“I think its pretty cool to see people interact, smile and be happy with all of the pets we have here today,” Michelle said. “The pets really enjoy playing with everybody and they get that element of socialization which is nice.”
Another person that saw great benefit from the event was Tom Bourke who is the Pastor at Crossroads of Faith United Methodist Church.
“We know that pets are a very important part of our families,” Bourke said. “We wanted to show that we truly care for our pets, and at the same time we wanted to try and see if we could get some of these dogs adopted.”
Pastor Bourke noticed the overall joy from the people at the event, and said it was great to see everybody acting together as a community should.
“Its great to see everybody coming together like this,” Bourke said. “I’ve seen so much serenity today, people are just at peace right now being able to walk up to another person who has their dogs and make that connection.”