Morgantown/Honey Brook AUGUST 28, 2024
SERVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES SINCE 1954
Café is a purrfect blend of coffee and adoptable cats and kittens BY FRANCINE FULTON
Hay Creek Festival to feature food, live music, re-enactments and more BY FRANCINE FULTON
students asked me to take her cat. I took her to the vet and I (learned) that she was pregnant, and she had kittens that week, so I had her and her five babies, and they all got adopted,” said Craig. “So, I started out with a litter of my own kittens, and I met Calla
The community is invited to attend the 48th annual Hay Creek Festival, to be held on Friday through Sunday, Sept. 6 through 8, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at historic Joanna Furnace, 1250 Furnace Road, Geigertown. Attendees will be able to savor seasonal treats, enjoy live music, purchase handmade arts and crafts and learn about the past through re-enactments and displays. The festival, which is being presented by the Hay Creek Valley Historical Association (HCVHA), will also feature children’s activities and a display of antique vehicles and machinery. A highlight of this year’s festival will be a Civil War encampment. This year, re-enactors will be from Thompson’s Independent Battery C, which is new to the festival, and the 50th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (PVI). “We will have an expanded encampment this year (featuring) more than 40 re-enactors,” said Mark Zerr, HCVHA executive director. “The PVI will also (re-enact) some of the homefront during the encampment, where
See Craig’s Cat Café pg 2
See Hay Creek Festival pg 4
Calla Gibson (left) and her mother, Stephanie Gibson, care for the adoptable cats and kittens that are housed at the café. While Jimmy (cat on right) recently went to his new forever home, Mittens (cat on left) is currently available for adoption.
features toys and cat trees for the animals to enjoy. Calla and her mother, Stephanie Gibson, who is a pet groomer and a foster, visits the café regularly to check on the cats and change their litter boxes, which are located in a separate area from the cat room.
The cat adoption process, which includes checking veterinarian references, is handled by volunteer Steve Brown. The first residents of the cat room at the café were kittens that Craig acquired through one of her students. “One of my
Hay Creek Festival
10 Adults, 2 Age 6-12, FREE Age 5 & Under
September 6-8, 2024
Historic Joanna Furnace is located 3 miles N. of Morgantown on Rt. 10
48th Annual
10am to 5pm
POSTMASTER: PLEASE DELIVER AUG. 28, 2024
PRSRT STD ECRWSS U.S. Postage Paid Engle Printing Co
Postal Patron
MCC
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win Valley High School alumna Calla Gibson of Elverson, who founded Calla’s Critter Rescue in May of 2021, has expanded her efforts to find forever homes for rescued cats and kittens through a new partnership with Craig’s Cat Café. At the café, which is located in the Riveredge complex in Spring City, visitors can not only enjoy coffee and sweets, but they also have an opportunity to meet and interact with adoptable animals and complete an adoption application. If approved, adopters can pick up their new pet at the café to take home. Since Craig’s Cat Café opened on July 15, five cats have been adopted from the location. T he coffee shop is owned by East Coventr y Township resident and special education teacher Rachel Craig, who was introduced to Calla by a mutual friend, local author Michelle Brownlow of Morgantown. Craig also owns and fosters cats. “I went to a cat café on vacation, and I said, ‘We need one of these at home,’” said Craig. Craig created a cat room in the café that is surrounded by an acrylic glass wall and is separate from the coffee shop area. Visitors are asked to pay a cover fee to enter the cat room, which
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FREE Parking • No Pets Please
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