We would like to take a moment to thank our friends at Earth Animal, who provided the funding for the construction of a new animal barn at Wakeman Town Farm. The newly completed barn will serve as additional shelter for the Farm’s animals, feed storage and veterinary care space.
Earth Animal raised $20,000 through a creative in-store sales promotion called The Little Barn Project, with a percentage of store sales going to the farm in addition to selling Wakeman Town Farm merchandise. Over six months, Earth Animal raised over $10,000 from loyal customers and then matched it, achieving the monetary goal to build the new barn.
“My sister Abbey and I visited Wakeman Town Farm and fell in love with the Farm and all that it does for the community, the animals, children, families and their dedicated sustainability mission,” recalls Merritt Goldstein, of the Goldstein family (pictured here), which owns and operates Earth Animal. “From that moment, we asked what we could do for the Farm and began supplying food for the animals. We quickly realized that the existing animal barn was very run down and needed to be rebuilt,” she said.
Nicole Gerber, of the Wakeman Town Farm Town Farm Committee, said, “We are sincerely grateful for the support of Earth Animal and appreciate their grand donation and fundraising campaign for our new barn. Partnerships with synergistic organizations like Earth Animal can continue to grow the Farm and provide community outreach and sustainability education across all age groups.”
We would also like to thank Paul Harris of Cole Harris Associates, who designed Earth Animal’s new store in Westport, and provided the architectural design for the project. And huge kudos to Pavel Jansa of Fix 2 Sell Realty, who served as the general contractor and brought the vision to life.
Goldstein summed it up: “It was an amazing journey, and our hearts are filled that the animals have a new home. Earth Animal is immensely proud of this project and truly hopes to do more with Wakeman Town Farm in the future.”
Since 1979, Earth Animal of Westport has been dedicated to preserving and enhancing quality of life for animals, people, and the Earth. Sustainability has been at the heart of the company from its beginning and dedicates 1% of its annual net sales to help pioneer a more sustainable future.