Susan Morrow brings us info on an event for dogs WOOFSTOCK 2.0 at 1912 Barn in Niantic July 11

Jeff Williams:
Welcome to Community Voices, a production of NPR Illinois. I'm your co-host, Jeff Williams, in the studio with me today, Susan Morrow. Susan, how's it going?
Susan Morrow:
It's going great.
Jeff Williams:
Did I say your last name correctly?
Susan Morrow:
You did. You were perfect.
Jeff Williams:
Susan Morrow. Good, right on, right on. And so you are with New Hope Animal Outreach, is that correct?
Susan Morrow:
Yes, I am.
Jeff Williams:
Based out of Decatur.
Susan Morrow:
That's right.
Jeff Williams:
Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?
Susan Morrow:
Sure. Before we get started, with that, if I could just do a shout out of support for APL.
Jeff Williams:
They had a pretty rough night.
Susan Morrow:
Yeah, I want to encourage everybody. They could go to their website, which is APL. shelter.org and hit that donate button. They're going to need a lot of support to get up and running again. They're a very important place to the community.
Jeff Williams:
I'm actually glad you just brought that up because we were just thinking about trying to run or pulling up a piece we'd done not too long ago for them, kind of edited some so the dates are more correct and run something like that. And I'll probably reach out to Jeff Cunningham over there too, but also didn't want to write, you know, it's like right now, you know, give them some time too. So, but yes, thank you. for doing that. Could you do that one more time too for people to hear that?
Susan Morrow:
Sure. It would be www.apl-shelter.org. That's their website. (Please check the APL Facebook page or their hotline at 217-360-7755 for updates) I looked that up this morning myself and I think it's in the upper right hand corner right there on the front page is their donate button.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah, right on.
Susan Morrow:
So.
Jeff Williams:
Well, thank you for that shout out.
Susan Morrow:
They're going to need a lot of support.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah. So though, Susan, it looks like you're going to have a Woofstock 2.0, is that correct?
Susan Morrow:
That's right. Woofstock, a little bit of history on Woofstock. It's been 10 years since one has been held.
Jeff Williams:
Oh, okay.
Susan Morrow:
Homeward Bound and Macon Resources put one on, I think, and they stopped in 2016.
Jeff Williams:
Okay.
Susan Morrow:
And that's when Homeward Bound shuttered their doors, I guess you would say. And so that's when the event ended. And Aissa Norris from the 1912 Barn.
Jeff Williams:
Was just in here like a couple weeks ago, yeah.
Susan Morrow:
She contacted us and asked… would we be interested in partnering with them to bring Woodstock back, which we thought was a really wonderful idea.
Jeff Williams:
And once again, I kind of talked over that probably, byt 1912 Barn in the Niantic area, correct? Yeah, between Springfield and Decatur somewhat.
Susan Morrow:
Exit 128 on I-72, so it's really central located as far as bringing people that are interested in the amount from all sorts of communities.
Jeff Williams:
I remember when she first came in and was talking about it. I ride my bike a lot in different areas and I thought, I wonder if I've ridden my bike past it before? But I don't think so. I didn't feel like I have not seen it. But I have been in that area, by those bunkers over there.
Susan Morrow:
Yeah, that's in Illiopolis area.
Jeff Williams:
The Illiopolis area, right on. So sorry, I'm hijacking it with nonsense here. Yeah, so she reached out. Did you know her before at all then?
Susan Morrow:
I'm also associated with Prairie Land Dance Club. (1912 Barn is the) event location, so sometimes they wanted country dancing and that sort of thing. So, I've known her from that perspective, but not from New Hope Animal Outreach.
Jeff Williams:
Do you want to give us a little background on the New Hope Animal Outreach?
Susan Morrow:
Sure. We started when Homeward Bound quit.
Jeff Williams:
Oh! Around the same time Homeward Bound ended? 2016? Okay.
Susan Morrow:
Our actual first idea was that we were going to take over for Homeward Bound, which didn't pan out because we didn't get the building. So, we're now in outreach instead, since we can't shelter animals. We have programs for low-income people to basically try to keep their pets at home and out of shelters or rescues. We address food insecurity. We facilitate getting their pet to a vet if they're sick or injured, which is also something that is challenging for low-income people. And those are the two main things that we focus on as far as outreach, but we also do what every other animal group does. We try to do some TNR and get, you know, animals spayed and neutered, which is where APL comes in. They were a great resource and will be, again, I'm hopeful. So that's mainly what our focus is. We're very kind of a grassroots group.
Jeff Williams:
And could you explain… TNR? Could you let people know what that is?
Susan Morrow:
Yeah, that's trap, neuter, and release. So that is for feral cats. So, we do the trapping. and we don't have a vet or anything like that. So we pretty much are just kind of a clearinghouse of information, trying to let people know what their options are. APL was a big one, but there's also some locally in Macon County. We just try to get them pointed in the right direction, but we can do the trapping for them.
Jeff Williams:
About a month, month and a half ago, I had a high school student in the studio. Ellen Wiker, from Athens, Illinois. She's in the Girl Scouts and she started a program there mostly focused on cats because she really loved cats. She ended up constructing these things to like house cats if they needed, including feral cats if they needed shelters for a while. And I thought it was kind of neat, I just hadn't heard of that particular idea. It was kind of a neat thing. But point being, all areas need their people to be, in different ways, to be able to help and to cross-pollinate in a way.
Susan Morrow:
That's one thing we do in the winter. We try… well, all year… we try to collect coolers. If somebody has a cooler they're wanting to get rid of (any) regular drinks cooler.
Jeff Williams:
Gotcha, like ‘Igloo’ style coolers? Gotcha.
Susan Morrow:
And then we have Cara, our cat lady. She makes them into feral cat shelters.
Jeff Williams:
Oh, okay.
Susan Morrow:
And then we put them in areas that we know that have colonies or sometimes residents ask, hey, you know, I need a couple. And we sell them, depending on how big they are. for between $10, $20.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah.
Susan Morrow:
And then we put that back into our TNR program. Sure, so if anybody has any coolers, let me know.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah, wow, that's good to know for sure. Well, and as far as that goes, how do people reach out to talk, you know, to get a hold of you?
Susan Morrow:
My phone number, which I share everywhere, is 217-413-8646. So, I can be called or text with a question or we take donations of food for our pet pantry. We take in open bags. So, if a cat or a dog passes away and they have food left for it, they just decide they're not going to eat it anymore, which happens to. And then we re-bag that and share it with people that need help.
Jeff Williams:
Gotcha. Yeah, that's good information also. Then you're based out of Decatur, right? So then your outreach pretty much covers Macon County. Were you involved in anything like this prior to 2016?
Susan Morrow:
Well, I was a volunteer, as were several of us, at Homeward Bound.
Jeff Williams:
Oh, you were? Okay, gotcha.
Susan Morrow:
And then when they closed, and I really wasn't a part of New Hope Animal Shelter, is what we were called at first, because we thought we were going to be a shelter. But about a year in, I started being involved. That's about the time we became New Hope Animal Outreach, because we did outreach programs instead.
Jeff Williams:
Gotcha. So do you want to give us a little bit more info about Woofstock 2.0?
Susan Morrow:
I'm excited about that yeah it's coming up July 11th from 10 to 3 and it is there at the 1912 barn in Niantic and we're just it's if anybody remembers the Woofstock of old it's fashioned very much like that we're going to have speakers on different dog related issues okay trainers service dogs and also what we provide the community. We'll also have a lot of vendors. We have dog-related vendors. Mojo. Joe's Poop and Scoop. I mean, just A-Z here.
Jeff Williams:
Right, Yeah.
Susan Morrow:
And then several of the local rescue and shelters are going to be represented. Wild Canine Rescue, Ridgeside Canine, which is from Pekin.
Jeff Williams:
Oh, wow.
Susan Morrow:
And then the Megan County Animal Shelter will be there. And also, DB Senior Chihuahua Rescue.
Jeff Williams:
Oh, really? They focus on Chihuahua rescues.
Susan Morrow:
A lot of the rescues do that. So, Any rescues are listening to me right now. If you're interested, just call that number and we'll get you hooked up. They still have plenty of room for more vendors.
Jeff Williams:
So more vendors are available then. Okay, so that's good to know for people. Yeah, definitely.
Susan Morrow:
And then we have animal groups, the Warrensburg Kennel Club. They have a service dog group. They're going to be represented. And even kittens. Special little Whiskers kitten sanctuary. It will be there. They are not, they may bring like 1 cat, but with all the dogs that'll be there. They probably won't have a lot of them. Right, And then Paw Prince Ministries and David Dodd, who's their trainer, they're both going to be there. And of course, we'll have a kids tent. We actually have a special t-shirt for the kids that's white so that they can paint it.
Jeff Williams:
Oh yeah, that's cool.
Susan Morrow:
And it has the same logo. that the regular shirt has, but that's one of the activities. And we have some crafts they can do. We'll have face painting. So, some fun things for the kids. And then we also have a couple of other booths. We have a photo booth with photographers. It's kind of a relaxed photo booth, but if they want a picture of the dogs they want.
Jeff Williams:
Sure, yeah.
Susan Morrow:
And then we have another activity for the dogs called Salvador Doggy, which they actually make a painting. So that's kind of cool.
Jeff Williams:
Nice, right on. That's cool. So, this will be housed inside and outside.
Susan Morrow:
The barn is an historic barn. It's absolutely a beautiful property. You know, people that have had weddings there and all sorts of things, it's just gorgeous. So even without any of the other fun stuff going on, it's a great place to spend the day.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah, well, that's why I'd heard of them. I'd been to events at Funk’s Farm one, which is up by Bloomington, a little south of that. And here again is something that was probably more of a homestead sort of a situation to begin with. And then in that case, the Funk family decided to turn some of their buildings, some of them marked as historic structures, and yet turned one of the large barns like that into an event space where any kind of event can happen. Usually, I'd be there for like art, like art related shows if I had some of my art or if I was going to see some other artists that were there. But that's when Aissa stopped by and she started to tell me about this, it was blowing my mind. I couldn’t believe I hadn't heard of this place before, because sometimes I seek those kind of places out, so.
Susan Morrow:
It's a beautiful spot.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah, very, very cool. And I'm sorry, did you give, other than the phone number, did you give like an online presence to help people?
Susan Morrow:
Yeah, we do have a website. It's www.nhaodecaturil.org.
Jeff Williams:
NHAO.
Susan Morrow:
And if they go to that, they can get into our ticket format. They would go into the Wolfstock page. There's a special page for it. Scroll all the way down. There's lots of information they can read, but scroll all the way down, and there's a ticket button.
Jeff Williams:
There for that. Okay, cool.
Susan Morrow:
And one thing I would like to point out, dogs, well-socialized dogs, dogs that will have fun at this event are welcome. They are free with their owner. But they do need to be pre-registered. This being our first year, we just kind of want to know how many dogs are coming.
Jeff Williams:
Makes sense. Yeah, for sure.
Susan Morrow:
And we also need to make sure they have their shot record with them. So, we know that they're up to date. So, because if they don't have the shot record, they're not going to be able to let them in. And we don't want to have to turn anybody away. But we really need them to be pre-registered in that website I just said and go to the Woodstock page and then into that ticket thing. That's how they would pre-register. Yeah, it is important to pre-register. It doesn't cost anything for the animal. There's two ways you can just have general admission, but you can go ahead and pre-register, still the $5 it takes to get in. There's also a VIP that's $25 and you get a shirt and a gift bag for your dog and admission. So, either one, doesn't matter which one, but we just need to know who's coming.
Jeff Williams:
And the dogs will be allowed on the grounds, but also inside, or is it mostly just outside?
Susan Morrow:
Mostly outside the barn.
Jeff Williams:
Oh, the vendors will be inside the barn.
Susan Morrow:
Well, some of them will be, and then most of them will be outside.
Jeff Williams:
Outside, okay.
Susan Morrow:
Like I said, it's kind of small, but it's everybody has to go in and see the barn.
Jeff Williams:
Gotcha, gotcha.
Susan Morrow:
Park their dog somewhere, because it's a beautiful barn. But we didn't want them to be so close together.
Jeff Williams:
Well, sure, it could become problematic in some cases.
Susan Morrow:
Little dogs that are carried, little pocket dogs, you know, that's fine. You won't have a problem with them going in the bar.
Jeff Williams:
Oh, gotcha, gotcha.
Susan Morrow:
Just, you know, large dogs might be a problem.
Jeff Williams:
Yep, that makes sense. I totally understand that. So then, is this. This is a Woofstock 2.0.
Susan Morrow:
Yeah, just to make the point that we're reviving it, kind of modernizing it maybe a little bit.
Jeff Williams:
So is this something you're planning on trying to maybe have to see how this one goes, but then pursuing in the future then?
Susan Morrow:
Yeah, definitely hopeful. We hope there's still a lot of interest. We've gotten a lot of feedback, real positive feedback.
Jeff Williams:
Nice.
Susan Morrow:
People being excited about it coming back. Hopefully that will happen.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah, very cool, very cool. Well, once again, we are in the studio with Susan. Susan Morrow. She's with New Hope Animal Outreach, talking about Woofstock 2.0, which will be happening at the 1912 barn, which is near Niantic, Illinois. And it's not really in Niantic, right? It's a little bit outside of there.
Susan Morrow:
It's on the other side of the highway.
Jeff Williams:
Okay. is it? Okay, it's on, so south, it's a little south of the... It's a little south. Okay, but the exit you take to get there again.
Susan Morrow:
128.
Jeff Williams:
128. So it's closer to Decatur, kind of, somewhat, but yeah.
Susan Morrow:
Coming from Springfield, once you get up to that stop sign, you'd be turning right and then left at the 1st St. And then it curves around and there you are.
Jeff Williams:
Right after the curve.
Susan Morrow:
It's going to be a great day. Actually, a family day. We've got lots of things for the whole family, hopefully, including the dog. But we want to make sure they're well socialized. Like they can take them to the farmer's market and they're happy and relaxed. Those are the dogs.
Jeff Williams:
Then you know it's good. Yeah. And oh, the hours, what's the time?
Susan Morrow:
Ten to three.
Jeff Williams:
Ten to three. Okay.
Susan Morrow:
We'll have a registration table. Hopefully we'll have a lot of people so they can actually come. them a bit early and we'll start processing them, 9:30 to 10am. So, because we're going to have speakers starting, we want most of the people to be in the activities.
Jeff Williams:
Sure, when the activities start. Right on. Well, Susan Morrow, thank you so much for coming and giving us information about New Hope Animal Outreach and about Woofstock 2.0. is going to be happening at 1912 Barn. And could you give us the website one more time for people?
Susan Morrow:
www.nhaodecaturil.org. That's our website.
Jeff Williams:
Well, thanks a lot for stopping by the studio.
Susan Morrow:
Thank you for inviting me. I appreciate it.
Jeff Williams:
Right on, thanks. Community Voices is events you might have missed and conversations with neighbors, artists, and area business people. suggest a guest or comment at communityvoices@nprillinois.org. Get to know your neighbors with Community Voices at noon and 10 p.m. and on demand at nprillinois.org.