Farmers Market Fun

The Spruce Street Farmers Market in Manchester, located on Market Field at 163 Spruce St., takes place every Wednesday from 4:30-7:30PM from June to August. This year, the farmers market decided to do a theme each week and our first market of the season this year landed on kid’s night! Since it was kids night, there was music playing songs like “You’re Welcome” from Moana, “We don’t talk about Bruno” from Encanto, and wait for it…..”What Does The Fox Say”.

Our fantastic Community Outreach Coordinator, Janice, set up the table adorned with coloring book pages of animals, information on our Parenting with Pets program, and lots more goodies for everyone passing by to enjoy! Janice brought along some of our stuffed dogs from the Program Center too! Since the dogs didn’t officially have names, Janice asked the kids to write down names for the two dogs- and the names were certainly unique!

We had many doggy visitors come to the table to say hi! There was a 9 month old named Abby, who was a bit wary of the stuffed dog, but quickly warmed up when some cookies were involved! A beautiful gray terrier name Stasiu visited as well. Janice learned that his name is actually Stanley in Polish! Lastly, a foster dog named Rocky came to socialize and eat yummy treats. We heard he was super sweetie and a big kisser!

Janice shared with the OC team a great experience she witnessed at the market,

“One of the best things I witnessed was a couple and their maybe 4 year old who approached the stuffed dog on the ground and treated it like it was real and practiced calm manners around it. When they approached, he looked at me before going near the dog and his parents asked permission to pet. Then, he ever so gently gave a pat to the dog. The whole time his parents were explaining how to stay quiet and be gentle, just like with their dog at home. The 4 year old then went on to name EVERY body part on the dog and thanked me afterwards!”

How cute!

On top of all the fun, we were able share with people seeking more information on our dog training program, cat adoption, our low-cost clinics, and even advice on local cat groomers! There were a few people that never heard of Our Companions before and were interested in learning more, but we did receive a visit from a long-time volunteer that participated in dog training when OC first began!

The coloring station was a big hit and it gave the parents a little break, as well as a chance to talk, and the kids really enjoyed it! Just check out Kayden’s beautiful rainbow hamster!

It was such a successful evening full of new friends, old friends, and four-legged friends too! We’ll be back at Spruce Street Farmers Market on Wednesday, July 12^th for Recipe Day and then August 2^nd for Dog Day! We hope to see you there! You don’t want to miss out!