Pet Rock Fest is pleased to announce its ongoing support for Red Rover's publication, KIND News, through a generous donation. This contribution will fund numerous magazine subscriptions for 4th and 5th-grade classrooms across Worcester County.

KIND News, a publication that has long been endorsed by Pet Rock Fest, perfectly aligns with our mission—a mission born out of a desire to educate children about the significance of kindness to animals, sparked by a cruelty case that inspired the festival's inception.

"Teaching children humanity contributes to a more humane adult world overall," notes founding partner Charlene Arsenault. "If kids aren't being taught kindness to animals at home, at least they'll be exposed to these values at school, where they spend a significant portion of their time. Instilling the importance of kindness to animals in young minds helps shape their personalities and fosters compassion and empathy for all living creatures.” 

Pet Rock Fest meticulously selects beneficiaries based on their impact on animal welfare in the New England area. With an abundance of outstanding animal welfare organizations in the region, we channel our proceeds towards charities supporting various causes, from shelters to law reform to sanctuaries for farm animals.

“Pet Rock Fest is delighted to reinstate our relationship with KIND News,” adds Pet Rock Fest founding partner Jeannie Hebert. “It is so important for young people to realize at an early age the importance of kindness to animals. It helps to develop their personalities in dealing with later life issues and cultivate relationships with the best friends they will ever have!”

The funds for this year will facilitate the distribution of Kind News magazine to 22 Worcester elementary teachers and approximately 600 students throughout 2024. Heidi Colonna, the writer and co-editor of KIND News, expresses gratitude, saying, “We're thrilled to continue Pet Rock's celebration of the human-animal bond in these classrooms through articles that explore how to be a responsible pet caregiver, how our pets communicate through body language, and inspirational people taking action to help. From young people donating supplies to animal shelters to NFL players speaking up for pets in crisis, the 'humane hero' stories featured are really powerful, because they're modeling kind actions which we hope will inspire other acts of kindness."

In addition to giving more than a half million in donations to animal welfare organizations since 1999, Pet Rock Fest has also supported several reward funds in local animal cruelty cases that aid in finding perpetrators of that cruelty, and has also paid for medical bills for pet guardians who were unable to afford it. 

Apart from donating over half a million dollars to animal welfare organizations since 1999, Pet Rock Fest has supported reward funds in local animal cruelty cases and covered medical bills for pet guardians facing financial constraints