Petals, Paws, & Candle Pours, a fundraiser hosted by The Haute Wick Social and Fresh Cut Kenova from April 12 to 13, raised money for Huntington Cabell Wayne Animal Control Shelter after recent budget cuts threatened its life-saving work.
Ashley Casto, the founder of The Haute Wick Social, said she is an animal lover and is happy to be organizing a fundraising event to support the local shelter affected by budget cuts.
“They’re providing life-saving care to these animals. I mean, they’ve become no-kill, and we can’t go backward, so I’m just trying to be a good community member and support them,” Casto said.
Casto said other local businesses contributed to the cause, with Full Serve for Ceramics and Gifts raising $1,500, Austin’s Ice Cream donating $1 per pup cup and other businesses, like Fresh Cut Kenova and Jewel by Boat Fair, pledging their support.
Casto said the shelter provides many different forms of support for the animals, including playgroups, volunteer coordination and rescue partnerships.
Other ways people can help, Casto said, are dog walking, participating in the “doggy day out” program and using social media to promote adoptions.
“I take the dogs to the shop, they hang out with me for the day and I get them on social media to help them get exposure and find their forever family, so there’s a lot of things to do,” she said.
Stephanie Fields, the owner of Fresh Cut Kenova, said she is concerned about the animal shelter budget cuts, and her personal connection through pet adoption is motivating her to raise awareness and funds.
“Seeing all the public’s reaction to the cut to the animal shelter really broke my heart. We adopted a dog from the animal shelter, so, you know, we love the animals in my house. So we wanted to just do anything we can to help because they need the extra help,” Fields said.
Fields said she started growing flowers in 2020 as a pandemic hobby and fell in love with it, which she turned into a business after seeing the joy flowers brought to people.
“I live just a block from my local farmer’s market, so I asked if I could sell there, and just meeting people and seeing how much joy flowers bring them just really, like, I was like, ‘Oh, I want to do this all the time,’” Fields said.
Fields said she sells locally grown tulips, carnations, roses and gerbera daisies. She said she tries to pick flowers with colors that go well together, so when customers build their bouquets, they can’t go wrong.
Fields said her business involves the whole family and, contrary to what people may think, her farm is an urban flower farm.
“We live in the middle of town, but every square inch of the property out back and on the side are flowers, so my daughter helps at all the pop-up events. My older boys – they’ll help me carry and load stuff. It’s kind of turned into a family business,” Fields said.
Luke Campbell can be contacted at [email protected].
