Pet Rock Fest announced recently that 20 New England area animal welfare organizations have been awarded donations from Pet Rock Fest 2017.

Because of the enormous success of the festival, held for the first time at Wyman-Gordon in North Grafton, Pet Rock was able to award more than $20,000 to local charities with proceeds from Pet Rock Fest 2017. Donations were given to organizations who benefit regularly from the festival, as well as some new charities that have been added this year. For example, due to an overwhelming amount of nominations, Pet Rock Fest for the first time made a donation to Pawfect Life Rescue this year, with $1,000 going to its cause.

"We are working on building an isolation facility for out of state dogs and an adoption center here in Uxbridge," said Julie Uthoff, Pawfect Life founder. "We just paid for the architectural drawings and purchased cage banks and paid for half the plumbing to prep the site. We now need to pay for and pick up the building permit and put a deposit down with a general contractor to start. It's a huge project, so this grant will go toward that." The following organizations received a donation from Pet Rock Fest:

MSPCA

Sunny Meadow Sanctuary

Foster Parrots

Maple Farm Sanctuary

CMDART

EchoDogs White German Shepherd Rescue

Juno's Place/People for Pets in Peril

Worcester Animal Rescue League

Spay Worcester

Animal Legal Defense Fund

Second Chance Animal Shelter

Daisy's Animal Rescue

Pawfect Life Rescue

Dog Orphans

Little Oliver Foundation

PittieLove Rescue

International Animal Rescue

Big Hair Animal Rescue

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Uxbridge Police Reward Fund Animal Cruelty Case "Part of the mission of Pet Rock Fest is to educate people about animal issues by bringing groups throughout the region together on a day that celebrates kindness to animals," said Founding Partner Charlene Arsenault. "But, also, it's important to note that all proceeds donated at the festival itself and throughout the year go directly to helping animals. These charitable donations hopefully help these wonderful organizations with their missions." Pet Rock Fest members choose the beneficiaries after investigating the work and reputation of the organization, as well as the impact on the welfare of animals in the New England area. Pet Rock Fest gives its proceeds to worthy animal related charities that support a variety of causes, from shelters to law reform to farm animal sanctuaries.

"For 19 years, the mission of the Pet Rock Festival has always been to provide funding for animal welfare organizations, rescues and shelters," said Founding Partner Jeannine Hebert. "After experiencing challenges in the past couple of years, Charlene and I are proud to fund more than $20,000 in grants to continue the programs of these worthy organizations that sacrifice so much so animals can live better lives."

"The Pet Rock annual gift helps sustain our organization over the lean winter months, when income is low and responses more likely because of weather conditions," said JoAnn Griffin, president and team lead for the Central Massachusetts Disaster Animal Response Team (CMDART). "Because we are not a shelter with live animals needing daily care, it's hard to get funding. People don't want to think about the 'what ifs.' This annual gift helps to subsidize the cost of training new volunteers to be ready for duty, purchases prevention materials, and helps keep our equipment in a ready state. We are thankful to Pet Rock, which understands the need for what our organization provides."