Announcements's Articles Archives

Hark! CCHF & CCAS Need Your Support

Posted on Friday, October 08, 2010 by Bill McLean in Announcements, Clarke County Animal Shelter, History
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The Clarke County Humane Foundation (“Foundation”) is probably unknown to most folks but you are probably very aware of its more well-known offspring, The Clarke County Animal Shelter (“Shelter”). This post will provide some background information about the Foundation and Shelter, along with pictures and profiles of pets awaiting adoption at the Shelter.

CCHF/CCAS – A Little History

In 2000, the Commonwealth of Virginia mandated certain standards for all county animal shelters. The Board of Supervisors at the time suggested that Supervisor Barbara Byrd put together a committee to study the feasibility of upgrading the Shelter to meet these standards. Barbara got together with Mrs. Stacy B. Lloyd, Mrs. Nancy Simpson, Mrs. Peggy Richardson/Cone, Mrs. Becky McCoy, Mrs. Leslie McLean, and Mr. George L. Ohrstrom II to form the Board of The Clarke County Humane Foundation.

Very quickly it became obvious that “upgrading” the existing shelter was impractical from either a construction or economic point of view, and we decided that we would try to raise the money to build a shelter that the Foundation would own, but that the County would staff and run. Becky, Nancy and Peggy were friends of Mrs. Betty Casey and they were successful when they asked her to donate ten acres of land to the Foundation. The land was a great starting point to get the Foundation up and running; it is close to both the County park and the County maintenance facility.

Mrs. Stacy B. Lloyd (known to many as “Vidy”) was the shining star of the campaign. Without her, we would never have gotten the Shelter built, and it’s only due to her legacy gift that we’ve been able to help the County staff it.

The Foundation and the Shelter offer spay/neuter programs, adoptions, rabies clinics, and other activities to raise awareness of animals. Most emphatically, they are not an animal rights organization like PETA; they are an animal welfare organization. They exist only to try to help the poor stray cats and dogs that are everywhere. They know the County isn’t able to run the Shelter as a no-kill shelter, but they do help the County keep the most adoptable animals for as long as possible.

The Foundation exists through private donations. It’s true that the County contributed money to the construction of the Shelter from the fund balance it had on hand to “upgrade” the old shelter, but since then the Foundation has made a very significant gift to the County of a yearly donation to help the County cover the employment expenses of the Shelter.

We will be having a joint fundraiser with the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center sometime this fall. We’ll keep you posted.

Volunteer Positions

Special Project Volunteers:

To assist with fund-raising events&em;lyard sales, pet adopters reunions, dog walk-a-thons, and information displays informing the public about the Shelter and Foundation goals.

Foster Care Volunteers:

Take pregnant or nursing cats or dogs out of the Shelter and into your home until the mother has weaned the babies and everyone is ready for adoption–or an injured pet needing a clean and quiet home to recover from surgery or an accident. The Foster Care Volunteer would get first option on adopting the fostered animals. All supplies would be the responsibility of the Foster Care Volunteer.

Kennel Attendant Volunteer:

Assist the Shelter in carrying out its mission to find good homes for unwanted, strays and surrendered animals. Help with the obedience training or socializing of the dogs to make them more adoptable. Help walk dogs or handle and pet cats. Help greet the public. Take pictures of the Shelter animals and update web pages. Help groom the Shelter animals. Help potential adopters visit with a pet of their choice. Help create and update Shelter newsletters. And always help clean the Shelter so the animals have a clean environment to stay in–a cleaner environment will attract more adopters.

Exclusion: Volunteers must not have any record of animal cruelty charges.

Benefits Volunteers Receive:

  • Satisfaction in knowing you have helped the Shelter carry out its mission.
  • Satisfaction in knowing you have helped an animal through hard times and have given it a place to heal.
  • Satisfaction in knowing you have helped the animal become more adoptable.

Editor’s Note: Adopt A Pet

There is no greater love nor stronger bond than that offered by a homeless four-legged one to the two-legged one who offers them the peace, love and affection they yearn for. Consider adopting a pet. By clicking the “Continue Reading” link below, you may view this article in its entirety, including pictures and descriptions of cats and dogs available for adoption at the Clarke County Animal Shelter.


Clarke County Humane Foundation, Inc. is a 501 (c}(3) non-profit organization.
CCHF has not provided any goods or services in consideration of your contribution.

Clarke County Animal Shelter
225 Ramsburg Lane
Berryville, VA 22611
540-955-5104

Old Chapel Celebrates 220th Anniversary

Posted on Sunday, September 12, 2010 by Anne Palmer Johnson in Announcements, History

Extract from the Friday, September 10th edition of The Winchester Star

Old Chapel Will Celebrate 220 Years

By Stephanie M. Mangino
The Winchester Star

Old Chapel…replaced a log-clapboard chapel built in the mid-1750s and served for decades as the primary place of worship for Episcopalians in what would become Clarke County. It is the oldest Episcopal church in continuous use west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, according to the website of its parish, Cunningham Chapel Parish.

Read the entire article

A New Lark Cometh to Clarke… an open invitation to friends and residents of beautiful Clarke County Virginia

Posted on Thursday, September 02, 2010 by PJ in Announcements, Uncategorized

We are about to embark on a new lark! A complete makeover of our A Lark Through Clarke County blog. And we want YOU to help us either create the new look or suggest the nature of the content for this blog.

Originally, our mission was to bring a behind-the-scenes look at  “A Lark Through Clarke Stable Tour and More” as the tour event unfolded. But alas, as announced a while back, the stable tour is no more.

Our focus changed earlier this year to stories about the rich history of Clarke County. But now we want to broaden our horizon to include current stories of community interest and happenings throughout Clarke County.

We are inviting YOU and all friends and residents of Clarke County to share their stories with us.  To that end, we invite you to take a moment now and offer your comments about where we go from here.  That is, what would YOU like to read about when you visit this blog?  What events or stories would be of special interest to you?

You might be asking, how do I post my comment here on this blog? It’s easy. Here’s the “how to” of posting a comment:

First, you scroll to the bottom of this blog where you will find several links, one of which includes the word “Comments” — below we’ve captured a screen-shot displaying those links along with an explanation of  how to proceed to post your comment.

IMPORTANT NOTES:  When posting to this blog, you are required to enter your name (a pen name, nickname or first name will do)  and email address in the space provided.  At your option, you may also enter a website address.  This could be the website address of your personal web page, the address of your place of business, or the address of a web site that is relevant to this blog, e.g., http://www.clarkehistory.org

Next, enter your comments in the larger text box provided.  You might ask a question about the proposed new content for this blog.  Or you might be bold and let us know you would like to become a regular contributing author to this blog!  Or, you may prefer just to let us know what topics you would like to see covered in this blog.  Of course, if you opted to enter a website address relevant to this blog, such as cited in the example above, you might post a comment such as:

“I would like to suggest that we blog about the forthcoming art show at the Mill in Millwood. The link you see above will take you to the Clarke County Historical Society (http://www.clarkehistory.org).  At the top of their home page, you will see a link to “ART AT THE MILL” — here you will find information about the Fall 2010 Art Show,  which kicks off early in October.”

Be sure to check over your entry to be sure your comment is free of errors and then click on the “Submit Comment” button. Your comment will be published once it has been approved by the Blog Administrator. C’est moi — PJ

Voila! You are done. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

First Snow

Posted on Sunday, December 06, 2009 by Anne Palmer Johnson in Announcements
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Photo of Cash's First Snowfall (c) http://thesoulofahorse.com/blog

Photo of Cash's First Snowfall (c) http://thesoulofahorse.com/blog

This morning, residents of Clarke County awakened to the splendor of snow glistening, and the sweet silver song of a lark… were you  listening?

We are truly blessed with the beauty that abounds and surrounds us all throughout Clarke County, Virginia.

The surprise, joy, and awe of one’s first snow are captured in the shining eyes of this fun-loving youngster. Many thanks to Joe Camp, creator of Benji and author of The Soul of a Horse, for sharing this precious photo. Joe’s book, incidentally, is a perfect Christmas gift for horse lovers, big and small, and everyone else!

Thank you Janet Hitchen for…

Posted on Tuesday, December 01, 2009 by PJ in Announcements
Tags:

…sharing your beautiful photographs for use in our stable tour web site and displayed in our new masthead, above. Now everyone can enjoy the picturesque countryside described in this blog through the lens of Clarke County resident and professional photographer, Janet Hitchen. When one of our stable tour committee members first saw the landscape photo in the masthead of our Lark through Clarke Stable Tour and More home page, she exclaimed: “This is exactly why we moved to Clarke County!”

Our new masthead, compliments of Janet Hitchen, captures the essence of Clarke County— home to historic places, landmarks, people and, as you can see,  breathtaking pastoral views, set against the majestic Blue Ridge mountains. The scenes pictured above and below are typical of what you will witness on your self-driven tour of Clarke County stables and historic farms, come Saturday, October 9, 2010.

In my initial post, I promised to bring you a behind-the-scenes look as we introduce you to the first annual Lark through Clarke Stable Tour and More.  A visit to Janet’s Landscape and Hunt Country Galleries will give you a glimpse of the panoramic mountain views that envelop Clarke County residents and why they are both blessed and enthralled with the beauty that surrounds them.

Register for more information re the Clarke County Stable Tour

Photo by Janet Hitchen, Photographer

To read more about Janet, click on the link to our About page in the upper right corner.

We will continue to feature photographs and stories of the families and their four-legged companions (pictured here and in our masthead photo) who live,
love and enjoy life around and about Clarke County, Virginia.