Updated at 2:48 p.m. on Oct. 3, 2018 to correct the misstating of Pamela Notchey's title. Notchey is the director of the Humane Society of Alamance County. Elon News Network regrets the mistake. 

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Many are familiar with the infamous music festival Woodstock. Not as many know about Woofstock, the spinoff festival with music, food and most notably, dogs.

The Humane Society of Alamance County just completed its annual Woofstock event for its 21st anniversary on Saturday, Sept. 29.

Woofstock is a community-based event with about 40 vendors that include food, crafts, other rescue organizations and local businesses, according to HSAC Director Pamela Notchey.

“This is really our big event of the year that we put together by ourselves for ourselves,” Notchey said. “It’s usually end of September, beginning of October every year.”

After having been in City Park for 19 years and Graham last year, Woofstock took place at the Burlington Depot for the first time.

“I feel like we got a little more interest in it being in downtown Burlington, which was nice,” Notchey said. “The setup was very different; we’re a little more closely packed together, which gives it a more festival feel.”

Susan Townsend, with the Alamance Kennel Club, has been attending Woofstock for the last seven years.

“One of the neat things about it has been the evolution of adding more performances, and having a live band and having the food trucks have been great,” Townsend said. “I really love this location a lot. It feels a little more compact; you have more face time with people.”

Townsend appreciates the work of the HSAC, their continued growth and the growth of Woofstock.

“They are doing a great job; they are going to continue adding great opportunities for dog events and new demonstrations and that sort of thing,” Townsend said. “Just getting the word out and letting people know how cool of an event it is and how important it is to support your community.”

Notchey also agrees community outreach is important not just for the future of Woofstock, but for the future of HSAC and the Burlington area.

“We really try to spread our presence inside the community to inform them of all of those animal welfare laws and resources available,” Notchey said.

The HSAC was founded in 1971 as a way to help overpopulation of pets. By volunteers partnering with veterinarians they were able to help pets in the community get fixed.

“We started as a spay and neuter organization where our volunteers would pick up people’s pets in the community that maybe couldn’t get them to their appointments to get fixed,” Notchey said.

Since then, the HSAC has been present in the community for 47 years and has expanded to focusing on five major programs: Low-Cost Spay/Neuter program, Rescue and Foster Program, Pet Pantry, Community Education and Emily’s Fund, a medical assist program.

Notchey has embraced the student involvement and volunteers from the Elon community. Many fosters of animals within the HSAC have come from Elon University.

“We really try to support our Elon community,” Notchey said, “especially students because they really do so much for us.”

Notchey hopes to have continued community involvement in raising awareness and
volunteering.