EDWARDSVILLE - The Metro East Humane Society will host their annual Woofstock festival to raise $20,000 for their animals.
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From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, at Triangle H Farms in Edwardsville, families can enjoy touch-a-truck, inflatables, face painting, pony rides, a margarita bar, live music and more. Moana and Elsa, two Disney princesses, will also make an appearance, and attendees can check out a vendor fair with business and craft vendors. All of the money raised through sponsorships and ticket sales will go back to the Metro East Humane Society (MEHS).
“It’s just a family-friendly festival that celebrates peace, love and pets, just bringing everybody together,” explained Mady O’Reilly, MEHS development manager. “It goes without saying, but we can’t exist without the community that helps support us.”
This year’s theme — “Rescued dogs are grateful dogs” — plays on the Grateful Dead theme and Woodstock nostalgia. Mike Sonderegger will provide live music, and there will be food from La Casa Mexicana, Pig on a Wing and a few other trucks. O’Reilly is especially excited about the doggie demos, where dogs will complete agility tasks.
Tickets cost $15, or families can purchase a four-person family pass for $40 plus $10 for each additional kid. The first 150 people who come to the festival will receive a free swag bag.
Between sponsorships and ticket sales, MEHS hopes to raise $20,000, enough money to operate the shelter for a few months. O’Reilly explained that the money goes toward payroll, utilities, pet food and the other services that MEHS provides, including their vaccine and microchip clinics, free pet food pantry and low-cost spay and neuter program.
“I think a lot of people, when they first think of Metro East Humane Society, they think of adoption services and fostering a pet or volunteering,” O’Reilly noted. “But we do have a lot of community programs that we have available for the public to take advantage of to help make pet ownership more accessible.”
You can purchase Woofstock tickets online or at the gates. From Friday, Aug. 30 to Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, you can receive a discounted rate if you use promo code “LABORDAY24” during checkout.
MEHS will accept vendors up until the day before the event; email O’Reilly at developmentmgr@mehs.org for more information. To help MEHS reach their fundraising goals, you can also donate online.
“We’re really leaning on community support at all times, and this is one of those events that helps us really kind of come together as a community while also supporting everything that we do, celebrating the community while also having it benefit us as well,” O’Reilly said.
Visit the official Metro East Humane Society website at MEHS.org for more information about their services, programs and adoptable pets.
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